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June 8, 2012

Occupy Activists, Clergy Members Pressure Trinity Church on Trespass Charges 
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Occupy Wall Street activists returned to Zuccotti Park on Thursday to
protest trespassing charges against activists who were arrested at New
York’s Trinity Church on December 17. The protesters had scaled a
fence onto church-owned property after Trinity refused to give them
sanctuary following their eviction from Zuccotti at the time. Thursday's
rally was held as part of a campaign to pressure Trinity to drop
cooperation with prosecutors ahead of the protesters' trial next week. A
group of New York pastors led a prayer vigil in support.

Rev. Rosemary Bray Mc Natt: "I must take issue with Trinity Church
today. I must take issue with their desire to prosecute people for
acting in a way that churches and houses of worship [have] acted for
centuries. I must take issue with those people, for whatever reason, who
have decided that prosecutions of free speech and prosecution in the
service of human life and human flourishing is a good idea."

Also speaking at the event on Thursday was the priest, poet and
activist, Father Daniel Berrigan.

Daniel Berrigan: "Real estate is real when it is in service to the
common good. And when people are being served by the real estate it
becomes real once more. We're witnessing in the case of Trinity the
unreality of real estate out of all control, which is to say, the real
estate is growing unreal by playing God. They're trying to be in charge
and failing utterly. One way of putting our project today is to say, we
are here to restore the reality to real estate."

 

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