In Downtown Chicago, a Catholic Group’s Easter Display Will Have Some Godless Company

If you visit Daley Plaza in downtown Chicago this weekend, be sure to check out these 8-foot banners promoting separation of church and state:

The displays are sponsored by the Metropolitan Chicago chapter of the Freedom From Religion Foundation who did something similar last year. It comes in response to a Catholic group’s display honoring Jesus:

The FFRF display is designed to counter what is believed to be days of round-the-clock prayer and evangelism in Daley Plaza by the Thomas More Society, a Catholic group, which has evangelized in the plaza every Easter since 2011. The group’s aim, through its “Divine Mercy Project,” is to seek the “conversion of Chicago, America and the Whole World.”

The Catholic society is expected to place a 10-foot-tall painting of Jesus, which it claims was miraculously inspired, with the statement “Jesus, I trust in you.” The painting is accompanied by a 14-foot cross on the public plaza. In past years, Catholic supporters have also held 24-hour prayer vigils, distributed thousands of prayer cards and hosted anti-abortion rallies in front of the Jesus painting.

And just to hammer home the point that they’re not trying to convert anybody — rather, they’re just providing an alternative point of view in the public square — the atheists will also have these “disclaimer” signs near the banners:

Last year, the Catholic display was vandalized. It’s unclear who did it, but FFRF immediately condemned the actions.

By the way, this isn’t the FFRF Metropolitan Chicago chapter’s first foray into public advertising. For a couple of years now, they’re been putting up a giant Scarlet A display in the same plaza during Christkindlmarket.

(Large portions of this article were published earlier)