Catholic devotees swept through the Philippine capital of Manila yesterday in a spectacular outpouring of passion for a centuries-old statue of Jesus Christ that many believe holds miraculous powers.
In the nation’s biggest annual religious gathering, barefoot men and women crammed into Manila’s streets hoping to touch the life-sized, black icon as it was paraded through the city’s historic area for a day-long procession.
For what she said was the 40th year in a row, grandmother Carmelita Maralit, 64, waited for the “Black Nazarene” to pass her by.
Photo: AFP
“I have high-blood pressure and I believe it [honoring the statue] helps ease my pains,” Maralit told reporters.
Police said half a million people joined the parade as it began at a seaside Manila park, but estimated the crowd would grow to 8 million, as in previous years, before the icon is returned to its home at nearby Quiapo church.
The frenzied rush of people trying to touch the icon causes the carriage on which the statue rests to look like it is being tossed in a sea of human waves. Most of the devotees wear no shoes as a sign of penance.
Larry Torralba, 34, carried four white handkerchiefs as he and 69 neighbors waited for the parade, intending to jump above the throng onto the icon’s carriage and touch it with a handkerchief.
“I’m not asking for miracles, only that [God] keep me away from trouble and help me find work,” the Manila carpenter said.
Wage laborers, the unemployed, slum dwellers and middle-class professionals jostled to touch the statue of the Black Nazarene or wipe it with towels or handkerchiefs in hopes that the mystical powers they believe it possesses will rub off on them. The statue was brought to Manila by Augustinian priests from Mexico in about 1607, and has survived fires, earthquakes and World War II bombings.
Security guard Jason Mohica believes his four-year-old son was revived by the Nazarene after he was born lifeless for several minutes.
“This has been our annual devotion because this is his second life,” he said.
However, while many hail the statue and the Catholic Church celebrates the outpouring of devotion, not all Filipinos feel the same.
One of the country’s most prominent independent filmmakers, Jim Libiran, described the procession as “a pagan sacred orgy for a Christian idol” that was no different from the hysteria of pop fans.
Yesterday’s march also took on a political note.
In a Mass before the start of the procession, Manila Archbishop Antonio Tagle called on the faithful to respect life.
In a jab at the recently approved reproductive health law opposed by the Catholic Church because it promotes contraceptives and sex education, Tagle said that state funds that should be spent to feed the people, build homes and schools “are instead used for instruments of death.”
“I hope that more people will come forward as witnesses to the sanctity of life,” he said.
The pitch is a classic: A young celebrity with no climbing experience spends a year in hard training and scales Mount Everest, succeeding against some — if not all — odds. French YouTuber Ines Benazzouz, known as Inoxtag, brought the story to life with a two-hour-plus documentary about his year preparing for the ultimate challenge. The film, titled Kaizen, proved a smash hit on its release last weekend. Young fans queued around the block to get into a preview screening in Paris, with Inoxtag’s management on Monday saying the film had smashed the box office record for a special cinema
CRITICISM: ‘One has to choose the lesser of two evils,’ Pope Francis said, as he criticized Trump’s anti-immigrant policies and Harris’ pro-choice position Pope Francis on Friday accused both former US president Donald Trump and US Vice President Kamala Harris of being “against life” as he returned to Rome from a 12-day tour of the Asia-Pacific region. The 87-year-old pontiff’s comments on the US presidential hopefuls came as he defied health concerns to connect with believers from the jungle of Papua New Guinea to the skyscrapers of Singapore. It was Francis’ longest trip in duration and distance since becoming head of the world’s nearly 1.4 billion Roman Catholics more than 11 years ago. Despite the marathon visit, he held a long and spirited
‘DISAPPEARED COMPLETELY’: The melting of thousands of glaciers is a major threat to people in the landlocked region that already suffers from a water shortage Near a wooden hut high up in the Kyrgyz mountains, scientist Gulbara Omorova walked to a pile of gray rocks, reminiscing how the same spot was a glacier just a few years ago. At an altitude of 4,000m, the 35-year-old researcher is surrounded by the giant peaks of the towering Tian Shan range that also stretches into China, Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan. The area is home to thousands of glaciers that are melting at an alarming rate in Central Asia, already hard-hit by climate change. A glaciologist, Omarova is recording that process — worried about the future. She hiked six hours to get to
The number of people in Japan aged 100 or older has hit a record high of more than 95,000, almost 90 percent of whom are women, government data showed yesterday. The figures further highlight the slow-burning demographic crisis gripping the world’s fourth-biggest economy as its population ages and shrinks. As of Sept. 1, Japan had 95,119 centenarians, up 2,980 year-on-year, with 83,958 of them women and 11,161 men, the Japanese Ministry of Health said in a statement. On Sunday, separate government data showed that the number of over-65s has hit a record high of 36.25 million, accounting for 29.3 percent of