Sunday, April 20, 2014

Slow Saturday Special: Nailing This Philippine Post

Hammered it out with perfect timing.

"Philippine crucifixion ritual persists" by Aaron Favila | Associated Press   April 19, 2014

SAN PEDRO CUTUD, Philippines — Devotees in northern Philippine villages had themselves nailed to wooded crosses to reenact the crucifixion of Jesus Christ as thousands of local and foreign spectators watched the bloody annual rites to mark Good Friday in Asia’s largest Roman Catholic nation.

Church leaders and health officials have spoken against the practice, which mixes Roman Catholic devotion with folk belief, but the annual rites continue to draw participants and huge crowds.

Archbishop Socrates Villegas, head of the Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines, discouraged the crucifixions.

‘‘If what you do makes you love others more, then it is pleasing to God,’’ he said. ‘‘But if you do it for photographs, just to be famous, that is spiritual vanity.’’

Devotees undergo the crucifixions in the belief that such extreme sacrifices are a way to atone for their sins, attain miracle cures for illnesses, or give thanks to God.

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Also see: Filipino Fundamentalists 

Hey, that's politics.