World | Philippines
Thousands of Filipinos gather for religious procession
Tens of thousands of Filipino Catholic devotees jammed the streets of the capital on Friday, throwing handkerchiefs and surging forward for a chance to touch a black statue of Jesus Christ.
- AP
- Published: 09:30 January 9, 2009
Manila: Tens of thousands of Filipino Catholic devotees jammed the streets of the capital on Friday, throwing handkerchiefs and surging forward for a chance to touch a black statue of Jesus Christ.
The annual procession honouring the 402-year-old image of Christ, known as the Black Nazarene, took a different route this year to give the devotees more space and reduce the chance of stampede.
The life-sized wooden figure, believed to have been brought by Spanish missionaries from Mexico in 1606, made its way through the streets of Manila in a cart pulled by plainclothes police officers.
The cart was pulled on a rope on its way back to the downtown Quiapo church.
During the past events, the statue was pulled around the church square, but this time organizers decided to take it first to a central park and through the city streets so more people would have a chance to see it.
Some 1,500 police were securing the procession. Police said the figure was fitted for the first time with a global positioning satellite device to make it easier to track.
Last year, about 80,000 took part and two people died.
The archbishop of Manila, Cardinal Gaudencio Rosales, said many Filipinos are devoted to the Black Nazarene because they identify with him in the midst of poverty and suffering.
"They see Christ in themselves when they suffer from poverty and oppression," Rosales said at a dawn Mass. "In their devotion they see God's love for them amid all this misery."
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