Pilgrims Retrace Jesus’ Last Steps in Good Friday Rite

Christian pilgrims clutched wooden crosses and gold prayer books as they walked along the cobblestone streets of Jerusalem’s walled Old City on Good Friday, retracing the last steps of Jesus.

The groups that made their way along the Via Dolorosa to the Church of the Holy Sepulcher--the site where many Christians believe Jesus was crucified and buried--were noticeably small. Tourism has dropped sharply after more than six months of fighting between Israelis and Palestinians.

Tourist buses that in past years stretched over the hill leading to the Via Dolorosa were absent. There was ample elbow room in the church as worshipers sprinkled red rose petals and perfume over the marble slab where tradition says Jesus was laid after his death.

Hassan Nashashibi, who owns a souvenir shop near the church, remembers brisk sales last year, when brigades of tourists bought more than 2,000 crosses. By early Friday afternoon, however, he had sold only 30.

The Israeli-Palestinian fighting, which erupted in late September and has claimed more than 450 lives, continued Friday. Three Israeli border police were wounded in a roadside bomb explosion in the West Bank. In the Gaza Strip, four Palestinian teenagers were wounded by Israeli army fire.

The violence has dashed hopes that more than 3 million tourists would visit in 2001, a year after the Holy Land pilgrimage by Pope John Paul II.

Singing hymns and muttering prayers, small groups of tourists from France, Italy, the United States, Guatemala, Japan and other nations walked to the 14 stations that mark the events of Jesus’ last journey, beginning in a courtyard where the Bible says he was condemned to die.

In the Philippines, about a dozen Filipinos were nailed to crosses Friday in reenactments of Jesus’ death that have become a fixture of Easter Week celebrations in Asia’s largest Roman Catholic nation.

A fish vendor underwent the bloody ritual for the 15th time, fulfilling a vow to give thanks for his mother’s recovery from tuberculosis. Heresito Sangalang, 45, was among the dozen who were nailed to crosses outside San Pedro Cutud.