11 nailed to crosses in bizarre Philippine ritual
http://www.voila.co.uk/News/afp/people/000421110535.8fddgvdc.html
SAN FERNANDO, Philippines (AFP) - - Ten men and a woman
were nailed to wooden crosses here on Good Friday in a
bizarre ritual held annually despite the disapproval of the
mainstream Roman Catholic church.
Several hundred local and foreign tourists watched under a
hot sun as the 10 men, clad in white loincloths, and a
woman in a white robe reenacted what the Bible describes as
the crucifixion of Jesus Christ 2,000 years ago.
The 11 staggered into a fenced-in knoll where neighbors
dressed as Roman centurions awaited with wooden crosses,
hammers and four-inch (10-centimetre) nails.
Bus driver Chito Sangalang grimaced as the nails were
driven into his palms and feet as he was nailed to a cross.
The cross was hoisted aloft for the crowd to see before
Sangalang was taken down.
"It's amazing to see people sacrificing themselves for
their sins," said American tourist Rey New, 40.
It was the 14th year Sangalang has been nailed to a cross.
His brother Arnel was crucified for a seventh time along
with eight other penitents.
Woman penitent Amparo Santos was crucified last.
Chito Sangalang told journalists that he was taking part
in the annual crucifixion ritual to thank God for curing
his mother of tuberculosis.
"I promised to do this for 15 years. This is my 14th
year," he said.
The annual spectacle began when Sangalang was "arrested"
by fellow worshippers dressed as Roman soldiers and brought
before a man playing the role of Pontius Pilate, the Roman
governor who authorized Jesus's death.
Accompanied by horse-riding "guards", he walked a dusty
one-kilometer (0.6-miles) to the man-made knoll where he
was nailed to the cross. Guards pretended to pierce his
side with a spear.
The nails, soaked in alcohol beforehand, were pulled out
after a few minutes.
Aside from the crucifixions, dozens of penitents walked
barefoot in the village of San Pedro Cutud, beating their
bare backs bloody with sticks laced with broken glass.
The Roman Catholic church has frowned upon such
expressions of fealty, but penitents reenact them annually
to seek special favors from God such as the healing of a
sick relative or the meeting of a financial need.
"Faith is important, but let's not go to the extremes,"
Cardinal Jaime Sin, the highest-ranking church leader in
the Philippines, has said.
Spain brought Catholicism to this southeast Asian
archipelago with the sword of colonial conquest in 1521,
and the Philippines remains the lone major Catholic outpost
in Asia with more than 50 million Catholics.
The faith supplanted animism and Islam, which had arrived
two centuries earlier, in all but a few areas in the large
southern island of Mindanao.
In the Mindanao city of Zamboanga, large numbers of Roman
Catholics stayed away from churches on Good Friday amid
bomb threats attributed to Muslim extremists, residents said.
Soldiers and police armed with assault rifles guarded
churches for afternoon masses following threats by the
radical Islamic group Abu Sayyaf to attack Christian targets.
"We are afraid because there are threats of terrorists
bombing churches here," said businesswoman Marites
Fernandez, 27.
She, her husband and seven children broke tradition and
avoided attending mass and a religious procession
afterwards through the city, where 90 percent of the
500,000-strong population are Christians.
Fernandez's neighbours in Zamboanga's Tetuan district also
stayed at home, most of them glued to television or radio
sets where masses and Jesus's "Seven Last Words" while on
the cross were aired live.
"Even my sister who has a statue of a saint did not attend
the procession. It's very scary, we are just being
careful," Fernandez told AFP.
MOI COMMENTS:
In certain portions of this area of the world - you can be locked up by the
[un]holy Vatican for "illegally" eating their potato chip wafer "god" - and
locked up for an number of years! Some probably think i'm joking - but its
sadly true!
But here the [un]holy monks can only "disapprove" of this pagan superstition
and potentially life threatening bunkum.
But WHO may we ask, has taught, and given to drink to these people, the cup
of satanic anodyne, that teaches men to seek the "the favour of god" by
their own works in the first place?
Is it not in fact the gaudily dressed prelates of the Vatican spiritual
syncretic whorehouse - aka "And upon her forehead was a name written,
MYSTERY, BABYLON THE GREAT, THE MOTHER OF HARLOTS AND ABOMINATIONS OF THE
EARTH." (cf, Revelation 17:5) as the olden time nations and "people of
book" did say of her.
What a conspiracy of deceit - if ever there was one inflicted upon humanity!
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