Good Friday event began 10 years ago after parishioner Judge Terrence Berg was shot; today, he helps organize efforts for peace
DETROIT — Gesu Parish will host its annual Walk for Hope against gun violence on Good Friday, April 18, at 6 p.m., 10 years after one of its own became a victim of violence in his own front yard.
The annual walk has become a Good Friday tradition that invites Gesu parishioners and neighbors to walk as Christ walked his path to Calvary, in solidarity with those who have been victims of violence.
The effort began 10 years ago, after longtime parishioner Terrence Berg, a judge of the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan, was shot in the knee while taking his trash bins back to his house on March 5, 2015. When the Jesuit-run parish in northwest Detroit found out what happened, the community naturally wanted to respond, parishioner James Sweeney told Detroit Catholic.
“This is who we are and what we do, and obviously it is close to home when it’s someone you know, and you are going to want to respond,” Sweeney said.
Berg, who has lived in the University District neighborhood of Detroit since the late 1980s along with his wife, Anita, and his three now-grown children, has since made a full recovery.
Sweeney, along with fellow parishioners Pat Jones, Mark Lezotte, and Berg, have organized the annual Good Friday walk as a way to advocate for peace in the community. With the exception of the years impacted by COVID-19, the walk has continued year after year.
Approximately 100 to 200 people walk each year, which always includes parishioners, members of the neighborhood, as well as other victims and advocates against gun violence, including former Oxford High School students who became advocates following the fatal school shooting in 2021.
Jones said the "Walk for Hope" has become a natural part of the parish’s observance of Good Friday.
“Our parish is very much into social justice as a way of furthering the Gospel and being a part of the kingdom,” Jones said. “It just makes sense for us to do it on Good Friday. It has become a very important statement … and it is important to do it prayerfully. We begin (the walk) with a prayer service; we keep it based in our faith.”
Each year, organizers invite advocates to address the group before the walk begins. This year, Quincy Jevon Smith, executive director of Team Pursuit, a community violence intervention group, and Phillip “UcciKhan” Sample, founder and executive director of Response Able Hands And Minds Inc., as well as the 4820LIVE peace initiative, will speak.
Both men have dedicated their lives to ending gun violence, Jones said.
The annual event helps participants understand the work being done to end gun violence, particularly in the city of Detroit, and to let community members know they are not alone in seeking a peaceful solution, Lezotte added.
“It is critically important as part of efforts towards social justice to make sure there are safe and supportive communities for people to live in," Lezotte said. "How can we be part of a community that says that we respect and value life if we don’t make an effort to protect and value the people around us?”
Berg, with his family at his side, has participated every year. The first year, he was in a wheelchair and stood with crutches to address the participants; the second year, he jumped for the crowd, demonstrating his recovery, which he credits to God's providence.
Although the shooting was unrelated to his work as a federal judge, Berg said the experience has allowed him to grow in empathy for victims, including those who appear before his court.
Berg, who has served on the federal bench since 2012, added he feels “lucky to have had this experience.”
“I don’t mean to minimize it any way or suggest that it was a good thing — it was not a good thing to go through — but I was extremely fortunate so now I can look back on this and have it be something that can be a source of understanding and hopefully compassion and recognition of what other people have gone through,” Berg told Detroit Catholic.
As a Catholic, Berg said being able to have compassion and empathy for others is crucial when it comes to loving one's neighbor.
“It is sometimes difficult for victims to see the humanity of the perpetrator, and, of course, the perpetrator was not seeing the humanity of the victims, which is in a lot of ways why the crimes occurred,” Berg said.
Berg sees the walk as a response to the hopelessness and helplessness many feel in response to what seems like a relentless march of headlines about gun violence.
“People feel like, ‘Oh, what can I do? There is nothing I can do.’ This is something,” Berg emphasized. “It’s standing with the victims, it's standing with the people, and it's making a statement that gun violence is wrong."
There's a good reason the walk takes place every year on Good Friday, Berg added.
“Jesus gave the example of sacrificing himself for the love of humanity, and that is ultimately the model we all are supposed to try to follow,” Berg said. “When you have a community like Detroit, which is awash in easily available firearms, and those firearms result in unnecessary deaths and maimings and woundings of so many individuals, I think the call of the Gospel is to do whatever you can to be with those who are suffering and to try to heal the situation.”
In the 10 years since the Gesu walk began, Berg said it's been amazing to see some of Detroit's most violent neighborhoods develop community initiatives to reduce gun violence — many of which have already begun to bear fruit.
“I don’t think people would have thought that was realistic; they would have thought, ‘You’re telling me newly released citizens who were in prison are actually doing something to support nonviolence and to intervene?’ And yet, there it is — it’s part of what's happening,” Berg said. “My hope would be that if the walk continues for another 10 years, it can be part of that kind of improvement — that little by little, people will turn away from using violence and firearms to harm each other.
"That may be too much of an optimistic view, and it may be an unrealistic hope, but that's why we call it the Walk for Hope,” Berg said.
That’s how faith works, Berg said: Every small conversion, every little change is a positive thing.
The message of peace, hope and compassion is a lesson close to the heart of Good Friday, on which Catholics and other Christians remember Jesus' death on the cross, which paved the way for the salvation of the world, Sweeney added.
“We are looking for other ways to resolve our conflicts, and when you think about it, the three-day passion of Christ and his death and resurrection answers that question,” Sweeney said. “In his death and resurrection, there is a solution about how to deal with this — and that is showing compassion, showing love for our neighbors, putting yourself second to other people.”
Gesu's 'Walk for Hope' Against Guns and Violence
Gesu Parish invites Catholics, advocates, and community members to join the annual Walk for Hope against guns and violence at 6 p.m. Good Friday, April 18, which will include brief remarks in the church followed by a simple supper of soup and bread.
