Pope, Philippines Mark Day : Good Friday Tradition Survives Jerusalem Strife

Thousands of pilgrims, singing hymns and carrying wooden crosses, solemnly observed Good Friday in Jerusalem’s walled Old City today, while in Rome Pope John Paul II slipped into St. Peter’s Basilica to hear the confessions of 11 pilgrims.

In the Philippines, devout Christians, from bus drivers to criminals, slashed, flogged or had themselves nailed to crosses in rituals designed to win forgiveness for sins and cures for sick relatives.

The Good Friday observances came as Jews began celebrating Passover, commemorating the flight of the Jews from Egypt.

Hundreds of police, many with submachine guns or tear gas launchers, were stationed along the Via Dolorosa, a winding route through the narrow streets of the Old City of Jerusalem that, according to Christian tradition, follows Jesus’ path from the spot where he was condemned to death to the Crucifixion site.

There were no disturbances during the Christian processions, but at the Lion’s Gate, a few hundred yards from the start of the Via Dolorosa, a worshiper leaving Muslim Sabbath prayers on the Temple Mount stabbed a policeman, slightly wounding him. The assailant was arrested.

Church officials canceled the Palm Sunday procession through Arab East Jerusalem to the Old City because of the anti-Israel uprising in the occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip that has left at least 123 Palestinians dead.

Following a Good Friday tradition he established in 1980, the Pope put aside the formalities attached to his pontificate to act for 70 minutes as a simple parish priest.

The pontiff heard the private confessions of students from California and Nigeria, a Madrid housewife, a father and daughter from Holland and six Italians. The 11 pilgrims were selected from the crowd by an aide.

In a rice paddy 55 miles north of Manila, Fernando Macapagal winced in pain while friends dressed as Roman centurions drove 5-inch steel spikes through his palms and raised him on a cross.

He withstood the ordeal for four minutes before the companions pulled him down and pried loose the nails, sending blood spurting out of his hands.

“It was very painful but now I feel fine,” said Macapagal, 33, one of four men and one woman who reenacted Christ’s suffering in the paddy near San Pedro Cutud after dragging crosses down a 2-mile dirt road.

Another penitent, fish vendor Chito Sanggala, fainted after hanging on a cross for 12 minutes in front of 5,000 spectators, including several foreign tourists.