@Eric Rose Well, the Archdiocese in Chicago is not open to the public (it wasn't a few years ago anyway), and so the only way to get a shot of this area was through this gate.
OK but you could have taken a photograph from in front of the vertical obstruction and if necessary used a wider angle lens to cover the field of view you wanted.
@Svenedin It's been several years since this photo was taken, but if I recall, the spaces between the fences were so small, that you couldn't fit the lens between the vertical part of the fence.