Catholic anti-war demonstrators marched on the White House today, setting off at noon from St. Matthew’s Cathedral. Today’s action was part of their observation of Ash Wednesday, the first day of Lent and a tradition with a theme of repentence.
A flyer being handed out quoted Pope Benedict XVI as saying “Christ needs apostles ready to sacrifice themselves. He needs witnesses and martyrs.” This kind of quotation seems to be in line with other citations of church authority and scripture that this group uses to explain its non-violent activism.
Many of the participants also participate in a weekly Friday mid-day vigil outside the White House that has gone on since the United States invaded Iraq in 2003.
They were led by Art Laffin, a long-time activist and organizer with the Dorothy Day Catholic Worker. I’ve spoken with Laffin on a couple of occasions, including while doing a piece for Free Speech Radio News on the Friday vigil and the 3rd anniversary of the Iraq War, and I later witnessed him take part in a large march to the Pentagon that week. Laffin recognized and greeted me as he passed.
I encountered the march returning to my office during my lunch break. I was leaving the vicinity of the Lafayette Park as they approached, so I did not witness what happened after they arrived. Often this group engages in civil disobedience (I witnessed them engage in CD more than once, including during the previously mentioned march and on the anniversary of the Nagasaki bombings this year), but I hadn’t heard of any such plans this time around.
In Lafayette Park, on the North side of the White House, you could see signs of the processions imminent arrival if you knew what to look for. The uniformed Secret Service and Park Police seemed to have a few extra personnel on Pennsylvania Avenue and around the park. An elderly man sat down on a bench. He wore jeans and a reasonable jacket, but carried a priest’s cassock to pull over his other clothes, presumably to join the demonstrators.