Pilsen’s Via Crucis: Tradition Amid Change

This annual reenactment of Jesus’s last days, involving all the neighborhood’s Catholic churches, is one of Chicago’s largest

by Juanpablo Ramirez-Franco and Max Herman 4 weeks ago

Participants in Pilsen’s Via Crucis procession take a group photo inside Providence of God Catholic Church on Friday, April 19, 2019. (Photo: Max Herman)

Every year, on Good Friday—the Friday before Easter—crowds of hundreds gather on 18th Street in Pilsen to watch the Via Crucis procession, a live reenactment of the fourteen stations of the cross and crucifixion of Jesus Christ.