Witness at the Pentagon

By Frank Panopoulos
Pax Christi USA National Council

On Friday, March 27, about 70 peacemakers (including myself) processed through the Pentagon’s South parking lot, then past the designated area for protesting (which became off limits to protestors last October), and on towards the visitor’s entrance. Stopping at the entrance, we made a line facing the queue of soldiers, contractors, and visitors waiting to enter the Pentagon. The people in line stood rapt watching us as we quickly unfurled banners, displayed placards, and started singing “Were you there when they crucified my Lord.” The occasion was the 70th birthday of longtime peace activist and Catholic Worker Patrick O’Neill.  The reasons we were there were manifold.

To begin with, it’s especially vital now to stand up for Jesus’s teachings of nonviolence because the Gospel — the Good News — has been usurped by White Christian nationalists who embrace war as a holy endeavor that is part of God’s plan and eschew mercy and compassion as weakness. Like Pope Leo, Chicago’s Cardinal Blase Cupich, Pax Christi USA’s President-Bishop John Stowe and other bishops, we must reassert publicly, creatively, and nonviolently the Gospel teachings to counter and discredit the White Christian nationalist narrative. Otherwise, where and what is our faith? Consequently, we went to the Pentagon to challenge White Christian nationalists like Secretary of War Pete Hegseth and others in the military who promote the holy war narrative and toss the Sermon on the Mount into the trash heap.  

Another reason for our witness was to raise to the people working there the immorality and illegality of the Pentagon’s work. Absent people demonstrating, the soldiers and civilians working at the Pentagon will have no one to challenge their conscience about planning to annihilate our world by nuclear war, about the genocide in Gaza, about the war crimes being committed against Iran, about the social costs to our communities of a trillion dollar defense budget, about the fascism gripping this country, about the soldiers’ oath to uphold the Constitution and not obey illegal orders, and about many other issues. There are workers at the Pentagon who appreciate the reminder. Regularly during the weekly Pentagon vigil on Monday mornings organized by the Dorothy Day Catholic Worker in Washington DC, a few workers will say thank you for being present. A few others signal a thumbs up. Without any challenge, the potential among the workers for conversion, quitting, and whistleblowing diminishes.

A third reason to be at the Pentagon was to encourage demonstrating there, and more particularly civil disobedience. People demonstrate all over Washington, DC — the Capitol, the White House, the Mall, but never at the Pentagon. It’s as if it is off-limits to demonstrating. The Pentagon is the heart of the US empire and the enforcer of the wanna-be king’s rule; it is responsible for war crimes, militarizing the police forces, universal surveillance, and not for a second keeps us secure. Yet not one of the No Kings demonstrations in DC, or any of the other mass demonstrations, has been at the Pentagon. Even more disappointing, it has not been the site of mass civil disobedience. Last Friday, 27 of us were arrested there for “interfering with agency functions.” It took the Pentagon police almost eight hours to process us because their resources are limited to arresting and processing only a few people. Imagine what 1,000 nonviolent protestors getting arrested there can do! And imagine that every day of the week. That would be the miracle that would help birth the change of heart this country desperately needs to begin disarming.

After a half hour of singing and reading a statement, the police sent our supporters away and zip tied the rest of us. Most of those arrested have known Patrick O’Neill for decades and have a long history of arrests and prison time, including for Plowshares actions. Many are Catholic Workers. As we waited to be processed (verifying our identification, being pictured and fingerprinted), we caught up with each other and told stories of past actions. That kind of passing on of oral history helps to nourish and maintain community, and was especially important for the younger persons arrested to hear. And, of course, we sang “Happy Birthday” to Patrick (pictured above).

We all are to appear in the federal court in Alexandria, VA in June, when the next phase of the witness begins: raising Jesus and the moral questions in court.