Trainee clerics in Guantanamo Bay protest

The treatment of prisoners in Guantanamo Bay detention camp by the US government was today compared to that of Jesus Christ when he was sentenced to death.

Students training to become Church of Ireland ministers staged a Good Friday protest outside Dublin’s US embassy, calling for President George Bush to free the alleged terrorists.

Carrying a cross symbolising Jesus’ plight, students from the Church of Ireland Theological College in Churchtown began the protest with a procession from St Bartholomew’s Church on Clyde Road in clerical robes to remember those in custody.

They were joined by theology students from Trinity College Dublin and UCD at the embassy gates where they prayed for victims of what they claim is extraordinary rendition and torture by the US authorities.

“Good Friday is the day when we remember as Christians that Jesus Christ was subjected to a secret trial, rendition, humiliation, torture and execution by the state, even when it knew he was innocent,” said David McDonnell, a first year student at the Theological College.

“We call on President Bush, as a Christian, not to be guided by the example of Pontius Pilate, who washed his hands when he knew a terrible injustice was being committed, but by the example of Jesus Christ who said ’just as you did it to one of the least of these who are members of my family, you did it to me’.

“In his life, Jesus showed that all people, including those of different religions and even those who had committed crimes, deserve to be treated with dignity.

“He spoke and ministered to Jews, Samaritans, Romans, Phoenicians, prostitutes and tax collectors and almost his last words on the cross were words of comfort for a criminal.

“It is an example we are called on to follow.”

Revd Katharine Poulton, rector of St George and St Thomas’s Church, and Rev Patrick Commerford were among in support of the prisoners those at the short service.

A petition addressed to the US Ambassador Thomas C Foley calling on the US government to extend procedural protections and human rights to all detainees was also handed in.

“While acknowledging that the abominable acts of 9/11, along with the continuing threat of terrorist attacks create profound security challenges, these challenges must be met within a moral and legal framework consistent with Christian values and laws, among which is a commitment to human rights that we as Christians share with many others,” continued Mr McDonnell.

“The petition calls for the extension of procedural protections and human rights to all detainees and an immediate end to rendition flights and the closure of the Guantanamo detention camp an icon of injustice committed in the war on terror.”