Via Crucis Belongs to the Community
March 10, 2025
On Good Friday, join the 48th annual procession in Pilsen
For 48 years, Good Friday has brought thousands to Chicago’s Pilsen neighborhood as the community celebrates Via Crucis—a reenactment of the fourteen stations of the cross, hosted right in the heart of 18th Street. It’s a gigantic labor of love: 70 to 80 people directly participate in staged portrayals of Jesus’ condemnation, crucifixion, and burial, with dozens more laboring behind the scenes. From musicians and folks providing food to the couple who arrives at dawn in Harrison Park and stays until after Jesus is crucified to dismantle the stage equipment, community members volunteer their time, expertise, and resources to build this public liturgy—a word that means quite literally, “the work of the people.” Nellie Quintana has been participating in Via Crucis since she was 10 years old; 36 years later, she’s now one of the principal organizers. And at this year’s procession—held in the shadow of a federal administration that has already begun mass deportations in Chicago and across the country—she knows something is different.
“You walk around Pilsen right now and it’s empty,” she notes with sadness. “It’s not what it was a couple weeks ago, a month ago. We definitely want to incorporate into our stations of the cross and the prayers we recite a message of love, unity, and support to all of our brothers and sisters who are being crucified.” Particularly in this moment, when so many Latiné communities are threatened by the specter of federal violence, Quintana believes that Via Crucis’ message of unconditional love and solidarity is more important than ever. “God shows up on Good Friday in Pilsen,” she says, “More than any other year, this procession is our proclamation: We see you and we love you. Jesus loved us and died for us on the cross, the biggest expression of love shown to humankind.” When thousands gather on 18th Street this year, it is a physical embodiment of that incarnational promise: God with us, now and always. “Via Crucis isn’t just a Catholic Church thing,” Quintana elaborates. “It belongs to everybody. It belongs to the community.”
Tailoring the procession to address neighborhood life isn’t new, even if it has taken on renewed emphasis. “All 14 stations are hosted at different places in Pilsen,” she explains. “We always connect the stations to something that’s happening in our community, whether it’s education, immigration, or gun violence.” This public testimony holds deep resonance. In 2020, when the procession was held during COVID in a smaller form, Quintana remembers public workers stopping in their garbage truck and joined those gathered. “They parked, got off, kneeled and prayed while we were walking,” she recalls. “It was like a sign from God coming down to Earth, telling us that everything would be okay.” The procession also becomes a moment to highlight community members’ faith and service. “A few years ago, a young man played Jesus who was tattooed all the way up to his neck,” she shares. “People might say, ‘He can’t look like that and portray Jesus,’ but he’s a Chicago firefighter, comes to church every Sunday, and he had recently lost his brother—another firefighter—who drowned in the river trying to save someone’s life, lost his mother and father right after that, then lost a sister.” Walking through the procession, embodying the suffering Christ became a way for the neighborhood to rally around his own suffering. “We honored how he gives back to his community, praising God for the commitment he has made,” Quintana says. “We try to find where the uniqueness of God is intertwined with the world.”
Through faithful portrayal of how God shows up in one community’s particularities, Pilsen tells a broader, universal story about how God breaks into the world. “I get emotional when I tell people, ‘No matter who you are, come on Good Friday. It’s going to change your life,” Quintana shares. “People come and they fall in love. Some started coming when they were in their mothers’ wombs, continued year after year, and are now organizers for the event.” Even as the neighborhood changes, this portrayal of God’s steadfast love remains constant. “We keep coming back, keep bringing in new generations,” she observes. “I’m planting these seeds because one day I won’t be here, and these young adults, these young kids are going to keep it alive for as long as God desires.”
This year, on Friday April 18, the Garrett Collective is partnering with Via Crucis to provide an opportunity for folks to gather with the procession. Rev. abby mohaupt, Director of the Garrett Collective, is organizing a group to bear witness to this holy rite, and is also training participants on how to bear witness in the event that ICE arrives. “We know that there are people who participate and give their time who are undocumented,” Quintana says. “We’re going to do everything we can to keep people as safe as possible. Because people are still coming: You are given strength when you have God in your heart.” If you want to support this year’s Via Crucis processions, organizers meet in Pilsen every Friday and there are still opportunities to volunteer with the event. You can also click here to donate and support this 100% community funded event. If you’d like to attend Via Crucis Pilsen with Garrett, click here to subscribe to the Garrett Collective and receive more information. “We are going to manifest this love for everyone in a world that needs it,” Quintana concludes. “Lives are touched and changed by this procession.”