Over 16,000 people from across the Americas — including celebrity actors Martin Sheen and Susan Sarandon — gathered Nov. 19-21 outside the gates of Ft. Benning, Ga., in the largest and most diverse demonstration yet of opposition to the School of the Americas. Its climax was a solemn funeral procession for the tens of thousands of victims of violence by SOA-trained military in Latin America. Fifteen people were arrested in acts of nonviolent civil disobedience, many climbing a 10-foot-high barbed-wire fence to enter the base. They will likely face up to six months in federal prison.
CTA inclusive liturgy
For months CTA had worked to form a coalition of church reform groups who could
pool resources and energy for new initiatives at the Georgia protest. They included
CORPUS, FutureChurch, Women's Ordination Conference, Federation of Christian
Ministries, and Roll Away the Stone. The coalition’s message: We stand
for justice both inside and outside Church walls.
Friday night, the group celebrated its first-ever inclusive liturgy. David Corcoran,
SOA protester and married priest, and Crystal Chan, CTA staffer, co-presided.
Readings were in both English and Spanish. CTA’s Mauro Pineda gave the
bilingual homily. Afterwards one woman said, “I’ve been a nun for
over 40 years, and this is the best liturgy I’ve ever been to.”
Plans are already underway to expand the liturgy for 2005.
Saturday afternoon, the coalition held its first-ever Progressive Catholic Forum.
Each group described its work and told how to get involved. Roll Away the Stone
gave a workshop on nonviolence and communication. Throughout the weekend, the
coalition shared information tables about church reform projects. CTA’s
banner, designed by Next Gen-er Joe Earley and created by CTA Iowa's Teresa
Mottet, caught many people’s eye with its white-on-black message: “Catholic.
Liberal. Faithful. Because not everything is black and white.” Over 100
matching t-shirts were sold, and 115 people signed up to receive more information.
Chan, Pineda and Jackie Shock, Next Gen leaders on the CTA staff, had made the
15-hour drive from Chicago with banners, t-shirts, postcards and handout literature
in tow.
On Sunday Pineda, representing CTA, spoke to all 16,000 participants from the
main stage, following such celebrities as Sheen, Sarandon, Sr. Helen Prejean,
Amy Rey of the Indigo Girls, Jesuit Fr. John Dear, and Salvadoran torture survivor
Néris Gonzales (see story, page 6.) During the procession, CTA mounted
a giant banner on the chain link fence at the SOA gate. It was covered with
the signatures of hundreds of CTA conference attendees two weeks earlier in
Milwaukee. It said simply, “CTA stands for peace.”
For more about this and ongoing protests, prisoners of conscience, legislation
on Capitol Hill to close SOA, and myriad ways to get involved, visit www.soaw.org
If you plan on bringing a group to next year's SOA event, contact Mauro (mauro@cta-usa.org
or 773 404-0004, ext. 268).
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