Civil disobedience

A growing number of Catholic religious and laypeople are participating in civil disobedience movements across the U.S., protesting what they say is inhumane treatment of immigrants at the border.

A jury unanimously found seven Catholic activists guilty Oct. 24 of conspiracy, destruction of government property, depredation and trespassing for a 2018 anti-nuclear weapons protest at Kings Bay Naval Base in Georgia.

Members of Christian Climate Action, including Catholics, joined the Oct. 17 protest by the Extinction Rebellion movement, holding up trains at three stations across London and demanding climate action.

I was arrested, for the first time in my life, at the Catholic Day of Action for Immigrant Children in mid-July. That day was probably the closest I will come to experiencing any kind of physical solidarity with migrants, no matter how much of a pale imitation my experience was compared to theirs.

The Kings Bay Plowshares 7 activists are charged with three felonies and a misdemeanor and face up to 25 years in prison each for trespassing on a U.S. Navy base in Georgia.

Distinctly Catholic: Make the point unmistakably clear. These are not normal times, what is being done to these desperate people is the real crime, and the Catholic Church stands with them.

Juana Luz Tobar Ortega spends her days at St. Barnabas Episcopal Church sewing pillow covers, sculpting clay cups and bowls and cooking pupusas and tamales.

A federal magistrate judge denied motions from seven longtime Catholic peacemakers to have charges dismissed on religious freedom grounds in connection with their April 2018 protest at an East Coast submarine base.