Confess sins first, receive communion, penitents asked

SAN FERNANDO CITY, Pampanga — Go ahead and flagellate yourselves and get crucified, but go to confession and have communion first.

This seems to be the common admonition of religious and local government officials in the province to penitents this Holy Week after Catholic bishops frowned on traditional Lenten practices that have become a major tourist attraction here.

Barangay San Pedro Cutud here features annual crucifixions and similar bloody spectacles on Good Friday — something which the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines (CBCP) discourages.

"Such practices are not endorsed by the (Catholic) Church, although they are tolerated," said Msgr. Eugenio Mercado, director of the liturgical commission of the Archdiocese of San Fernando.

Mercado noted that the intentions of most penitents who self-flagellate or have themselves nailed to the cross are often sincere.

"Some do it as a vow to manifest their gratitude to God for divine favors received, or to make up for their past sins," he said.

"But when such practices are indulged in at the expense of the substantial liturgy of the Church, it becomes wrong," the monsignor said.

He advised those determined to push through with their bloody penitential acts to first confess their sins to a priest in the sacrament of reconciliation and receive the Holy Eucharist.

Despite the CBCP’s declaration frowning on the bloody Lenten practices, however, the reenactment of the Via Crucis, or Way of the Cross culminating in the actual crucifixion of at least 12 Kristos on a hill resembling Calvary, will push through on Good Friday in San Pedro Cutud.

"I respect the views of the Church, but as a politician, I also have to respect the traditional practices of my constituents," said provincial board member Robert David, a major sponsor of the Via Crucis.

He spent for new costumes for the Kristos and other characters who will participate in the reenactment scenes, starting from the trial of Jesus by Pontius Pilate.

""It’s a tradition that has put our town on the world tourist map," said David who is also funding a "free suman" scheme for tourists expected to flock to town to witness the actual crucifixions.

"We have to take advantage of the presence of tourists to promote the products of the poor local folk and provide them with livelihood," he stressed.

But following the CBCP’s statement, David said he would ask the penitents to confess their sins and receive communion first before their bloody acts of mortification.

"I am a former seminarian and I think it is but fitting that I should also remind them about the importance of obeying the Church," David said.

San Fernando Mayor Rey Aquino said that the city government has maintained a hands off policy on the bloody Lenten practices of local folk.

"But we provide police assistance for traffic and medical assistance for any emergency, as thousands of people will visit San Pedro Cutud on Good Friday," he said.

Aquino, too, advised penitents to confess the traditional way and receive the sacraments before inflicting the whip on themselves.

Monsignor Mercado observed that flagellation has always been a "popular devotion" which originated not from the Church but from the people themselves.

He said the saints were known to have performed similar acts of self mortification, but that they did it in as private a manner as possible and not the media spectacle it has become in San Pedro Cutud.

In an earlier interview with The STAR, this year’s main Kristo Ruben Ynaje, 41, who has been nailed to the cross for the past 16 years, admitted that the first and last time he went to confession and holy communion was when he was only seven years old.

"That is the danger if no guidance on catechism is given the penitents," Mercado said.

The monsignor also lamented the practice of San Pedro Cutud folk to celebrate their fiesta on Good Friday just to accommodate tourists.

On that day, residents serve meat dishes and indulge in drinking sprees.

"The Church mandates abstinence from meat every Friday ... and imposes fasting, too, every Ash Wednesday and Good Friday," Mercado stressed.

The people of San Pedro Cutud, however, insist that they are exempt from this fasting observance because they would be commemorating their fiesta.

But their real fiesta should fall on June 29, feast day of their patron St. Peter, who thrice denied he knew Christ before the cock crowed.

GMA supports Church stand on flagellants

President Arroyo supported yesterday the Catholic Church admonition against the practice of some Filipino Christian devotees to be nailed on the cross or flagellate themselves every Holy Week to commemorate the sufferings of Jesus Christ.

Mrs. Arroyo, who spent elementary and high school in Catholic-run Assumption, said there was nothing new in the advisory of the CBCP.

Speaking in Filipino over her regular Monday radio program, the President suggested that truly repentant Filipinos should just observe "fasting."

"Fasting is good for the body. It’s a sacrifice but ... it does not do any harm to the body," she said.

On the CBCP statement, she said: "That has long been the rule of the Church. So it is not something new. They were just reminding us that the Church encourages sacrifices but not those that hurt your own body."

CBCP secretary general Msgr. Hernando Coronel earlier told the Catholic station Radio Veritas that such practices were "misrepresentations" of the Catholic faith.

Coronel said these practices, meant to commemorate the suffering and death of Jesus Christ over 2000 years ago, have become a tourist attraction and not a genuine act of penance for some faithful. — With Marichu Villanueva