Some in agony, others in ecstasy, Christians around the world marked Good Friday with prayer, processions and pleas for peace.
Thousands of pilgrims, some carrying large wooden crosses and others holding candles, wound their way through the narrow lanes of Jerusalem’s Old City, retracing the route the Bible says Jesus took on the way to his crucifixion.
In Rome, Pope Benedict XVI carried the cross at the beginning of the traditional Way of the Cross procession at the Colosseum. He described the procession as, ”a journey into pain, solitude and cruelty, into evil and death”.
”But it will also be a path trod in faith, hope and love, because the tomb which is the final stop on our way will not remain sealed for ever,” the pope said of Easter Sunday, when Jesus is believed to have risen from the dead.
Benedict handed over the cross to Rome Cardinal Camillo Ruini, his vicar for Rome. Other faithful, including a young Congolese woman and a family from Rome, took turns carrying the cross for a few steps.
In the Way of the Cross, ”we see not only Jesus’ suffering, but all the suffering of the world”, the pontiff said in brief closing remarks.
Passion play
In Mexico City, meanwhile, more than 500 000 people turned out for the annual Passion play in the capital’s working-class Iztapalapa neighbourhood. Thousands participated in the procession, many lugging heavy crosses through the streets.
Officials said it was the 164th year that the Passion play had been enacted in the neighbourhood, although there are references to earlier performances in Mexico City going back to the 16th century.
In the Mexican silver-mining town of Taxco, hooded men belonging to a Catholic brotherhood slapped their backs bloody with nail-studded whips and dragged their shackled bare feet across rough cobblestone streets. Others carried thorny blackberry branches tied across their outstretched arms.
On Jerusalem’s Via Dolorosa (Way of Sorrows), visitors from the United States, India, South Korea, the Philippines, Russia and many other countries followed the traditional route of Christ’s final walk, stopping at 14 stations, each marking an event that befell Jesus on the way to his death. Israeli police said ”thousands” took part.
The final five stations are inside the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, where tradition says Jesus was stripped, crucified and finally laid to rest before being resurrected on Easter Sunday.
In a re-enactment of those last hours, a Korean pilgrim played the role of Jesus, wearing a crown of thorns, dragging a cross and covered with fake blood. He was escorted by other pilgrims dressed as Roman legionnaires.
”The Lord moves us to come here,” said Bob Payton of Orange County, California, playing the part of a Roman soldier in his third Good Friday visit.
Bloody rite
In the Philippines, seven penitents in the northern village of San Pedro Cutud were nailed to crosses in an annual rite that is frowned upon by religious leaders but has become a major spectator attraction. Dozens of half-naked men hit their bloodied backs with bamboo sticks in an atonement rite.
In Paraguay, a thousand tourists travelled to the southern town of Tanarandy where residents carried out the traditional ”procession of lights” — handmade candles and lanterns lighting a path to a chapel through town, adorned by paintings depicting the passion of Jesus Christ.
In his traditional Good Friday message, Latin Patriarch Michel Sabbah, head of the Roman Catholic Church in the Holy Land, appealed to politicians of all faiths to bring an end to the region’s ongoing violence.
”What’s happening now, in our Holy Land here, is believers in God killing each other in the name of God; Jews, Muslims, Christians,” he said. ”We hope, we wish, for political leaders who will have the courage to go and find the right ways for peace.”
The calendars of five major Christian faiths coincide with one another this year, something that happens only once every four years.
Clergymen of different Christian denominations, some dressed in colourful robes, filed early on Friday into the Church of the Holy Sepulchre. The various groups, who have feuded in the past, put aside their rivalries and the ceremonies passed smoothly. At one point, Catholic and Greek Orthodox worshippers quietly held simultaneous prayers in different parts of the church.
In accordance with tradition, the church’s doors were unlocked by a member of a Muslim family that has held the key for centuries.
Passover
Easter this year also falls during the weeklong Jewish festival of Passover, which brings thousands of Jews into the cramped Old City to worship at the Western Wall, Judaism’s holiest site.
”Faith shouldn’t necessarily divide us, but in fact can bring us together,” said Catholic pilgrim Michael Murphy, a San Francisco native who lives in Paris.
Israeli police spokesperson Micky Rosenfeld said hundreds of police were deployed in and around the Old City to maintain order and protect all visitors.
Among the Easter pilgrims on Friday, some could be heard singing hymns in English, Latin and Hindi.
Slavko Stojic, an electrical engineer from Serbia, walked with three large crosses on his shoulders, which he wanted to have blessed before taking them back home.
The pilgrimage, Stojic said, had transformed him. ”I’m now a full man,” he said. — Sapa-AP
Associated Press writers Sarah El Deeb in Jerusalem and Joeal Calupitan in San Pedro Cutud, Philippines, contributed to this report