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August
7, 2006
VOL.
44, NO. 14Oakland,
CA
Franciscan priest
arrested during
White House vigil against Iraq war
WASHINGTON
(CNS) -- A Catholic priest arrested July 28 for blocking a White House
entrance said the protest was “a nonviolent way of showing our concern”
there be a speedy withdrawal of U.S. troops from Iraq.
Franciscan Father Louis Vitale, 74, said he and the four other demonstrators
who were arrested wanted President George W. Bush and British Prime Minister
Tony Blair to set a date for withdrawing coalition troops from Iraq.
Father Vitale, a member of the Oakland-based Saint Barbara Province of
the Franciscan friars, is retired pastor of St. Boniface Parish in San
Francisco and co-founder of Pace e Bene, which advocates nonviolent living.
The midday protest took place as Bush and Blair were meeting in the White
House.
Arrested with Father Vitale were: Diane Wilson, co-founder of an anti-war
group called
CodePink; retired Army Col. Ann Wright; Martha Odom of Portland, Ore.;
and Eve Tetaz of Washington.
“Our vigil was symbolic. We told Bush and Blair to stay in the White
House until they came up with some agreement to get our troops out,”
the priest said in a telephone interview in Washington.
The demonstrators also were asking the two world leaders to push for a
cease-fire in the Middle East between Israel and Hezbollah.
Father Vitale said that after being detained for a few hours, the group
was told that they would either have to pay a $50 fine each or face a
court date. The priest said July 31 he had not decided yet whether he
would pay the fine.
Supporting the five people arrested were several hundred other demonstrators
in front of the White House and across the street in Lafayette Park.
Father Vitale noted that at the White House meeting the U.S. and British
leaders did not come up with a plan to withdraw troops, nor did they support
a Middle East cease-fire.
The priest and the four other demonstrators were arrested around 1 p.m.
by U.S. Park Police after refusing police requests to move away from the
White House entrance. They were sitting in front of the entrance at that
time.
At the time of his arrest, Father Vitale had been on a hunger strike and
had been participating in anti-war demonstrations at the White House since
July 4. The demonstrations and hunger strike were organized by CodePink.
During the hunger strike, Father Vitale said, he had been drinking water
every day and fruit juices on some days. He said he planned to end the
hunger strike Aug. 4.
He referred to his action of blocking the White House entrance as a “vigil”
instead of a “protest.”
“I was sitting down fasting and praying,” he said. “I
spent most of my time praying for peace, for the withdrawal of our troops,
and even for Bush,” said Father Vitale.
He told CNS that he planned to travel to Jordan Aug. 2 as part of a 12-member
delegation organized by CodePink to meet there with members of the Iraqi
parliament to discuss Iraqi plans for bringing peace and reconciliation
to the nation.
According to Pace e Bene, the Iraqi leaders have asked the long-term fasters
to break their fast during their meetings together in Jordan.
Father Vitale has been an anti-war activist for decades and has served
prison terms for civil disobedience at Ft. Benning, home of the Western
Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation, formerly known as the School
of the Americas.
In 2001 he was awarded the Pope Paul VI Teacher of Peace Award by Pax
Christi USA, the U.S. branch of the international Catholic peace movement.
He is the co-founder of Pace e Bene (Peace and Good Wishes), a Franciscan-run
nonviolence center, and the Nevada Desert Experience, a movement that
works to stop nuclear weapons testing and works for nuclear abolition.
CodePink is a women-initiated anti-war movement. At demonstrations, women
members wear pink T-shirts featuring anti-war slogans.
Franciscan Father Louis Vitale, retired San Francisco pastor, was on a hunger strike at the time of his arrest.
