Good Friday Services Draw Christians Around World

Christian pilgrims from around the world, some bearing wooden crosses, retraced the steps of Jesus Christ through the narrow streets of Old Jerusalem in a Good Friday procession to the site where He was crucified and entombed.

At the Vatican, Pope John Paul II donned a priest’s black mantle, slipped into a booth inside St. Peter’s Basilica and heard 13 worshipers’ confessions. He also took part in a three-hour observance at St. Peter’s Basilica, and led a torch-lit procession through the ruins of ancient Rome.

In the Philippines, at least 17 people, including a convicted murderer, were nailed to crosses, while others submitted to floggings and other punishments in a frenzy of religious fervor to commemorate the death of Christ.

In Jerusalem, Franciscan priests led several thousand pilgrims on a march from St. Anne’s Church at the start of the Old City’s Via Dolorosa to the Church of the Holy Sepulcher. The Crusader-built church encompasses both the Hill of Calvary, where tradition says Jesus was crucified, and the tomb where his body was placed.

Jerusalem’s old walled city was jammed with pilgrims as they stopped to recite prayers at the 14 Stations of the Cross along the Via Dolorosa that mark the final journey of Jesus to the Crucifixion.

800 Million Catholics

John Paul joined the world’s nearly 800 million Roman Catholics in one of the year’s two fast days. Catholic adults are allowed only one meal and are to replace the others with liquid food on Ash Wednesday and Good Friday.

All the bells in Rome’s 917 churches were silent on Good Friday, the only day in the Catholic year when Mass is not said.

On Holy Saturday, the Pope will preside over the Easter vigil at St. Peter’s and lead Catholics in Christianity’s most joyous celebration, marking Christ’s Resurrection.

On Sunday, the Pope will celebrate an open-air Mass in St. Peter’s Square, read his Easter message and give his blessing, Urbi et Orbi--to the city (of Rome) and to the world.

But, in a break with a 30-year tradition, the Pope’s Easter Sunday message will not be telecast in Britain. The British Broadcasting Corp., announced that it is dropping the annual event because only 200,000 viewers, an all-time low, watched last year’s broadcast from Rome.

A BBC spokesman said the move will save the network $3,000 and help the BBC in its current economy drive.