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Eyewitness to Irony
Francis X. Piderit, VOTF NY
I am sorry to report that the vigil at Our Lady Queen
of Angels was stopped last night shortly after 11PM.
We are still piecing together the complete chain of events,
but as an eyewitness I can attest to the following:
A press conference was held outside the church at 2PM,
during which the locks on the church lavatory were surreptitiously
changed. Several large men unknown to the parishioners
appeared in the church around 7PM. These men turned out
to be hired by the Archdiocese as security agents. The
parishioners called the police because they did not know
who these unknown men were.
All the doors of the church were locked by the security
agents, and anyone trying to enter the church whenever
the side door was opened was forcibly shoved back out
into the street, including me. Police outside stood by
while this occurred.
Priests from the Archdiocese entered the church at approx.
9PM and addressed the crowd of about 30 parishioners,
including men, women and children, asking everyone to
leave. The priests then retreated to the sacristy and
did not appear again.
At approx. 9:30PM, Carmen Villegas, chairperson of Our
Lady Queen of Angels, managed to open one outside door.
Several supporters rushed in, along with many members
of the media and camera crews.
The camera crews were physically forced to leave the
church shortly thereafter by the security agents. There
was scuffling in the aisles and some of the news crews
were nearly shoved to the floor. (I am still trying to
determine whether all this took place in the presence
of the Blessed Sacrament.)
A police lieutenant and two other officers entered the
church, and began to talk with a City Councilwoman who
had entered the church when the doors were opened at
9:30PM, and then with the priests sequestered in the
sacristy. In the church, the parishioners continued to
pray the rosary and sing hymns. Soon the police captain
from the precinct joined the group.
For the next 90 minutes, the police shuttled back and
forth between the parishioners in the pews, and the priests
in the sacristy. Negotiations went back and forth. The
lawyer for the parishioners arrived on the scene but
was refused access to the church.
At the end of this process, the police said that all
parishioners had to vacate the church by 11:30PM, or
everyone would be arrested. Carmen Villegas and the other
leaders of the parishioners considered all the available
options, but it was clear that the police were going
to back the claim by the Archdiocese that it was the
owner of the property, that the parishioners were trespassing
on church property, and that the parishioners would have
to leave or face arrest for illegal trespassing. So the
decision became: How do we best conclude this protest?
The decision was made to have six parishioners agree
to be arrested and taken out of the church in hand-cuffs,
so that all the media outside could see what was being
done. All other protesters were to leave the church first.
When we left the church at approx. 11:15PM,
the scene outside was surreal, camera crews and trucks
everywhere.
Some 15 minutes later, the six hand-cuffed parishioners
were led single file down the driveway of the church,
as a crowd of perhaps 100 supporters chanted "Save
our church." The media rushed forward as they were
being loaded into a police van in front of the church,
and the arrested parishioners managed to shout brief
comments to the press. Some of the children of the arrested
parishioners were crying as their mothers were loaded
into the vans. The parishioners were taken to the precinct
on 102nd Street, where they were booked and then released.
These are the facts as best I can recall them.
In the end, the Archdiocese asserted, and the police
backed, a claim to be the owner of real estate, and refused
to acknowledge the rights of the parishioners to conduct
a peaceful prayer vigil in their own church. The Archdiocese
resorted to intimidation, threats of force, and invitations
to police to enter the sanctuary of the church in order
to suppress the vigil through threat of arrest.
I am trying to understand the true implications of these
events. It is always about faith, but had I not seen
these events with my own eyes, I never would have believed
this could happen inside a Catholic church. |
