VERA Files
What can the Catholic Church do to preserve the solemn observance of the Holy Week and attract more people to participate in the Lenten activities?
While the country marked Holy Week, members of human rights groups called on relatives of those killed in the government’s war against drugs to share their stories as a way of easing the pain of loss.
Text and photos by KIERSNERR GERWIN TACADENA BALIUAG, Bulacan–This town is hosting what could be the country’s biggest Lenten procession consisting of more than 100 religious statues riding on carriages or carrozas. But concerns are being raised that the occasion may have evolved from being a form of catechism and service to the Church, into […]
Around this time each year, hundreds of devotees flock to Barangay Sta. Lucia in Dolores, Quezon on the slopes of Mount Banahaw to celebrate Holy Week. Here, mysticism meets Catholicism, as members of various sects engage in what a local priest calls traditional spiritual practices at the height of the town’s Lenten rituals.
Text and photos by JANE DASAL NASUGBU, Batangas—At the break of dawn on Good Friday, Celilia Zafra donned a black dress and shrouded her face with a black cloth. Then she walked to a place called “putol na ilog” along the seashore of Wawa where devotees who […]
Text and slideshow by VINCENT GO PAOMBONG, Bulacan—Thousands of tourist and spectators have once again flocked to the quiet village of Kapitangan in this town, 47 kilometers north of Metro Manila, to witness the bloody spectacle of flagellation and crucifixion that plays out here each year. Penitents lashed their backs using whips with wooden flails […]
By AMIEL MARK CAGAYAN
HOLY Week, which commemorates the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, is a sacred tradition for Christians. It takes deeper meaning in a community where majority of the population belong to the Islam faith.
Text and photos by CARLO FIGUEROA
Traffic jams, air pollution from tricycle fumes, restaurants big and small packed to the brim, and the sheer number of visitors jostling for space in a cramped island were definitely not synonymous to rustic images beach life usually conjures. But such was the daily scene in Boracay over the Easter break.
Text, photos, and video by VINCENT GO
This year, five men and a woman were crucified, among them 51-year-old Sonny Bautista who has been mute since childhood. Bautista hails from Hagonoy town and has been coming to Kapitangan to be crucified for 14 years now.