A previous year’s "Jesus in Daley Plaza" display, which is being sponsored this year by the Thomas More Society, Tapestry Fellowship, City First Foundation, as well as Karl and Nancy Fritz, who designed and built this year’s cross. | Thomas More Society A nonprofit law firm that has fought many high-profile religious liberty cases is co-sponsoring this year’s 17th annual "Jesus in Daley Plaza" celebration that marks Easter with a 19-foot cross in downtown Chicago. Tom Brejcha, who serves as president and chief counsel at the Chicago-based Thomas More Society, noted in a statement the importance of exhibiting such symbols in the public square as religion is increasingly pushed out of it. "The Easter celebration represents a constitutionally protected expression of religious faith by private citizens in a public forum," Brejcha said . "It is an appropriate response to the concerns raised over 39 years ago by the late Rev. Richard John Neuhaus in his book, The Naked Public Square ." "Neuhaus lamented that America’s public spaces had been stripped of any references to religion or religious practices — as if it were somehow ‘undemocratic’ or ‘uncivil’ to celebrate Christian holidays out in the open where others could bear […]

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