Hundreds of pages of secret church files released Wednesday shed light on the troublesome careers of a dozen religious order priests, brothers and nuns accused of sexually abusing children while working in the nation’s largest Roman Catholic archdiocese. …read more
Source: FULL ARTICLE at Fox US News
Hundreds of pages of secret church files are shedding light on the troublesome careers of a dozen religious order priests, brothers and nuns accused of sexually abusing children in the nation’s largest Roman Catholic archdiocese. …read more
Source: FULL ARTICLE at Fox US News
By hnn
The conviction of Jesus by Pontius Pilate may be the most famous court verdict — and perhaps the most consequential, since it led to Christ’s crucifixion and the founding of a global religion.
Now a Kenyan lawyer wants to overturn Pilate’s decision, though he wants to keep the faith that flowed from it.
“The selective and malicious prosecution (of Jesus) violated his human rights,” said Dola Indidis, a Roman Catholic who is petitioning the International Court of Justice, based at The Hague, to nullify Jesus’ conviction and death sentence….
Source: FULL ARTICLE at History News Network – George Mason University
By Joseph DeCaro, Worthy News Correspondent
ASMARA, ERITREA (Worthy News)– Eritrean authorities are punishing 39 Christian high school students by subjecting them to beatings and hard labor, according to Open Doors.
Sources told Open Doors that after completing their mandatory four-month military training, the students were arrested for their “Christian beliefs and for their commitment to Christ” and are being held at the SAWA military training center; sources also report that Eritrean authorities are threatening them with long prison sentences should they fail to renounce Christ.
Since 2002, worship outside the government-sanctioned Sunni Muslim, Eritrean Orthodox, Roman Catholic and Evangelical Lutheran Church of Eritrea has been forbidden; earlier this year, the government began a renewed crackdown on all Christians outside state-approved churches, according to Open Doors.
The architect of this religious repression is President Isaias Afewerki who has been in power since Eritrea's liberation in 1991. After a two-year border war with Ethiopia, Afewerki began cracking down on anything he perceived as a threat to Eritrea's national unity, wrote Elizabeth Kendal in the November 2012 Religious Liberty Prayer Bulletin.
“He cancelled elections and closed all independent media. Opposition figures – politicians, activists and journalists – were removed, mostly to underground secret prisons for the 'disappeared.'”
According to Kendal, by the end of 2010, an estimated 3,000 Protestant Christians were incarcerated for their faith inside shipping containers at desert camps and in underground prison cells.
“The conditions are inhumane: Children and the elderly are amongst the prisoners sharing skin diseases, dysentery and other horrors in confined, unventilated spaces. Torture is routine … several Christians have died in custody, and others have perished in the desert trying to escape.”
Christians make up 47 percent of Eritrea’s population of 5.2 million, according to Operation World
Source: Worthy News
The white sands of Copacabana beach typically draw millions of sun-worshippers, New Year’s Eve revelers and fans for free concerts by the likes of Stevie Wonder and the Rolling Stones. …read more
Source: FULL ARTICLE at Fox World News
Polish tennis star Agnieszka Radwanska on Friday defended her controversial nude photo-shoot which saw her dropped by a Catholic youth movement, claiming the pictures were in good taste.
Radwanska, 24, who makes no secret of her strong Catholic faith, was photographed in the “Body Issue” of ESPN Magazine in profile without a stitch, sitting in a lawn chair by a pool filled with tennis balls.
While not explicit, the nude proved too much for a Catholic group known as Krucjata Mlodych (Youth Crusade), which runs a campaign dubbed “I’m not ashamed of Jesus”.
The young Catholics, who claim more than a million followers, dropped Radwanska last week for what they said was “immoral behaviour” in the ESPN spread, which can be seen at espn.go.com/espn/bodyissue.
But world number four Radwanska insisted the pictures were a celebration of the “beauty of the bodies of the best athletes in the world”.
“My tennis colleagues Serena Williams, Daniela Hantuchova and Vera Zvonareva have all participated in the past,” Radwanska wrote on a statement published on her Facebook page.
“The pictures are certainly not meant to cause offense and to brand them as immoral clearly does not take into account the context of the magazine.
“Moreover, they do not contain any explicit imagery whatsoever. I train extremely hard to keep my body in shape and that’s what the article and the magazine is all about.
“It has been suggested by some members of the press (among others) that I was paid for the photo shoot. This is absolutely not the case. Neither I nor any of the other athletes were paid.
“I agreed to participate to help encourage young people, and especially girls, to exercise, stay in shape and be healthy.”
This year’s beaten Wimbledon semi-finalist previously appeared in a television commercial sponsored by the group in which she spelled out the word “Jesus” with tennis balls and urged young Poles not to be ashamed of their faith.
Other athletes in the buff in the special issue include Puerto Rican motocross champ Tarah Gieger and nine-time major golf champion Gary Player, the oldest model at 77.
Home to the former pope, John Paul II, Poland remains one of Europe’s most devout nations. More than 90 percent of the population declares itself Roman Catholic.
Source: FULL ARTICLE at Fox World News
The monogamous, family-friendly culture shared by Christians, Jews, and Muslims proves both more sexually satisfying and more socially philanthropic than the promiscuous culture of hook-ups, homosexuality, and porn, a Roman Catholic researcher argued on Wednesday. …read more
Source: The Christian Post
Lawyers contesting the will of a widow who gave some $60 million to a secretive and disgraced Roman Catholic religious order are trying again to have their case heard, filing court papers in an attempt allow the woman’s niece to sue.
The papers, filed Wednesday with the Rhode Island Supreme Court, argue that Mary Lou Dauray has the right to intervene in the estate of her late aunt, Gabrielle Mee, a devout Catholic who gave most of her money to the conservative religious order the Legion of Christ. Mee died in 2008.
The lawyers seek to overturn a ruling by Superior Court Judge Michael Silverstein, who threw out Dauray’s lawsuit last year, saying she had no standing to sue. But he said at the same time that evidence existed that Mee was unduly persuaded to give the Legion her money and detailed how the Legion slowly took control of her finances as she became more deeply involved in the movement.
A church investigation determined that the Legion’s founder, the late Rev. Marcial Maciel, sexually molested seminarians and fathered three children. The Vatican took over the order in 2010 and Pope Benedict XVI ordered a wholesale reform.
Dauray’s lawyers have said that Mee was defrauded by an order whose leaders orchestrated an effort to hide its founder’s misdeeds from her aunt. Silverstein said in throwing out the lawsuit that some of what was before the court raised a red flag because Mee transferred millions to “clandestinely dubious religious leaders.”
In Wednesday’s filings, Dauray’s lawyers argue that Dauray is legally interested in Mee’s estate and that Mee’s most recent will was obtained by fraud and undue influence by the Legion.
Silverstein said in his opinion in part that Dauray disavowed her interest when she said during a deposition that she didn’t want anything for herself from Mee’s estate, but instead wanted it to go to charity. Wednesday’s filing argues that comment should not have been taken as Mee disavowing her interest.
The Legion must file a response with the court by early August. The order has not studied the filing yet but expects to prevail, said spokesman Jim Fair.
Source: FULL ARTICLE at Fox US News
Brazil is rolling out a massive security operation to protect Pope Francis during his visit next week to deter any repetition of last month’s social unrest.
More than 1.5 million pilgrims from around the world are expected to flock to Rio de Janeiro for the July 22-28 visit during World Youth Day (WYD), a major Roman Catholic youth fest.
The Defense Ministry, which is coordinating security, is boosting from an initial 8,500 to 10,266 the number of army, air force and navy personnel to be deployed for the high-profile event.
The troop increase was decided due to “the massive street protests in June,” according to a ministry spokesman, speaking on condition of anonymity.
In addition to the armed forces, state security officials will launch “the biggest police operation in the city’s history,” said Roberto Alzir Dias Chaves, the undersecretary for major events.
So “7,000 police will beef up the city’s 12,000 police, in addition to 1,700 members of the elite National Force and units of the civilian, highway and federal police forces,” he said last week.
“It will be a bigger mobilization than what occurred two years ago at the Madrid WYD,” he added, noting that the plan was developed well before the June street protests.
The nationwide turmoil, held during the Confederations Cup, brought more than one million Brazilians onto the streets of various cities to demand an end to political corruption and greater investment in public services rather than in sporting events such as next year’s World Cup.
The unprecedented protests, coordinated via social media, were often marred by violence and acts of vandalism.
And officials initially feared that the unrest might flare anew during the papal visit to the world’s largest mostly Catholic country.
But presidential chief of staff Gilberto Carvalho and Catholic leaders are now confident that this will not happen “given the very nature of the event”.
“The pope will be safe here. And not because of the armed forces, but because of our people, our democracy, the sympathy he inspires since he represents a new hope not just for the Church but for mankind,” said Carvalho.
As a sign of easing concern, the pontiff will not use his traditional closed popemobile but instead two open jeeps, to be closer to the people.
However press reports said a so-called “beija??o”, a demonstration at which gay couples kiss each other on the lips, or massive distributions of condoms might take place along the papal motorcade’s route.
In Rio, the pontiff will tour a small shantytown in the northern district.
But the biggest security concern will focus on events on Copacabana beach where the pope will deliver a welcoming speech for the youth and in Guaratiba, 40 kilometers (25 miles) west of Rio where a papal mass and youth vigil will be held.
On July 24, the pontiff will travel to Aparecida, a pilgrimage site in Sao Paulo state, where more than 4000 troop will provide security.
The defense ministry spokesman said the armed forces will handle security in 10 areas, including control of the airspace, border surveillance, chemical and biological weapons, explosives …read more
Source: FULL ARTICLE at Fox World News
Australian police have arrested a Roman Catholic priest on pedophilia charges, following months of negotiations to have him returned from the Vatican.
A police statement said the 67-year-old priest presented himself at Victoria state police headquarters in Melbourne on Monday. His name has not been made public.
The priest was charged with 10 counts of child abuse allegedly committed in Melbourne’s outskirts between 1976 and 1985.
Police said they had been negotiating with the Catholic Church since July 2012 to have him returned to australia.
Police said he was released on bail and will appear before a magistrate on Friday.
From: http://feeds.foxnews.com/~r/foxnews/world/~3/BF_5ILAzmLs/
Brazil‘s foreign minister says “all necessary measures” are being taken to ensure security at next year’s soccer World Cup and the 2016 Olympics following the deadly explosions at the Boston Marathon.
Antonio Patriota said Tuesday he is confident the country’s security measures “will guarantee the security of the events.”
While Brazil has never been a target of international terrorism, Monday’s attacks underscore how vulnerable big sporting events can be. Some observers are predicting authorities beef up security heading for the events, though officials have so far provided few details.
Rio will also host two major events later this year, the Confederations Cup soccer tournament and the World Youth Day, a Roman Catholic pilgrimage that’s expected to be attended by Pope Francis and as many as 2.5 million visitors.
From: http://feeds.foxnews.com/~r/foxnews/world/~3/nlH7IAvczpo/
The Rev. John Anthony Salazar served 11 years as a Roman Catholic priest in Texas despite a conviction for child molestation in Los Angeles.
Salazar has been accused of molesting four more teens and young men during his years in the Diocese of Amarillo.
Details of his past are contained in a personnel file made public this year after a legal battle with abuse victims that led to the release of 120 similar files.
But those records tell only part of the story.
On Tuesday, attorneys will argue over the release of records for about 80 priests, like Salazar, who belonged to religious orders that kept their own personnel files on accused clergymen. Plaintiff attorney Ray Boucher says the documents are critical to understanding the clergy abuse scandal.
From: http://feeds.foxnews.com/~r/foxnews/national/~3/zSTjJQ8EN2I/
A giant statue of the late Pope John Paul II billed as the world’s tallest has been unveiled in southern Poland.
Archbishop Waclaw Depo unveiled the statue of the Polish pontiff Saturday in the southern city of Czestochowa, the home of this predominantly Catholic nation’s most famous pilgrimage site, the Jasna Gora monastery.
The white fiberglass figure rises about five stories, or nearly 14 meters (more than 45 feet), on a hill overlooking the city.
It was funded by a businessman, Leszek Lyson, in gratitude for what he believes was an intervention by the late pontiff in saving his drowning son.
John Paul, who led the Roman Catholic church for 27 years before dying in 2005, remains a respected figure in his homeland.
From: http://feeds.foxnews.com/~r/foxnews/world/~3/tLuxnggH9IE/
A corner of a big Rome piazza, known for hosting free rock concerts and political rallies, will be renamed after late pontiff John Paul II, with Pope Francis coming to the unveiling ceremony Sunday.
While Francis instantly proved to be a crowd pleaser — about 100,000 people turned out in St. Peter’s Square Sunday and a nearby street for his noon blessing — the mention of the widely beloved John Paul still prompts affectionate cheers. When Francis noted that John Paul “closed his eyes to this world” exactly eight years ago this month, in 2005, the new pope drew so much applause, he couldn’t finish his sentence as he spoke from the papal studio window overlooking St. Peter’s Square.
Francis invited people to join him later in Rome‘s main church, St. John in Lateran Basilica. Pontiffs are also the bishop of Rome, and a traditional installation ceremony at the basilica formally recognizes that Francis is Rome‘s bishop as well as the leader of the worldwide Roman Catholic church.
Before entering the basilica, Francis was scheduled to attend the unveiling of a plaque on a corner of the square near the church, naming that part of the piazza after John Paul. The late pontiff enthusiastically embraced his role as Rome‘s bishop, visiting hundreds of city parishes on Sunday mornings.
Francis might be the pope who decides whether another miracle has been attributed to John Paul‘s intercession, which would enable the late, Polish-born pontiff to enjoy the church’s highest honor, sainthood. The church process to certify a first miracle needed for John Paul‘s beatification went exceptionally fast. The six years it took from his death until Pope Benedict XVI beatified him in 2011 was the shortest time in modern history. Beatification is the last formal step before sainthood.
The vast St. John in Lateran piazza, which can hold hundreds of thousands of people, is a popular venue for free rock concerts on Labor Day, May 1, and a frequent rallying point for union leaders and politicians. Rome‘s city hall said the square was picked as an apt place to honor John Paul after consulting with an Italian cardinal who serves as the pope’s vicar general for the Rome diocese.
Pope Francis seemed to be adding a new twist to the role of public squares in everyday life. At his Vatican appearance Sunday, he encouraged faithful to “go into the piazzas and announce Christ our savior” to the people. “Bring the Good News with sweetness and respect,” he added. The “Good News” refers to the Gospels.
John Paul, then Benedict, and now Francis have all made shoring up flagging faith on the traditionally Christian European continent as well as in other affluent areas of the world a priority of their leadership. The Vatican is also keen on preserving Catholic loyalty in places like South America, where dynamic evangelical sects have been attracting baptized Catholics away from their faith, as well as encourage growing communities of Catholics in Africa and Asia.
The new pope is expected to lead Catholic youth in pep …read more
Source: FULL ARTICLE at Fox World News
In the cold, barren hills of Korea more than 60 years ago, two teary-eyed soldiers stood in a prisoner of war camp where their chaplain lay dying.
The Rev. Emil Kapaun was weak, his body wracked by pneumonia and dysentery. After six brutal months in the hellish camp, the once sturdy Kansas farmer’s son could take no more. Thousands of soldiers had already died, some starving, others freezing to death. Now the end was near for the chaplain.
Lt. Mike Dowe said goodbye to the man who’d given him hope during those terrible days. The young West Point grad cried, even as the chaplain, he says, tried to comfort him with his parting words: “Hey, Mike, don’t worry about me. I’m going to where I always wanted to go and I’ll say a prayer for all of you.”
Lt. Robert Wood wept, too, watching the Roman Catholic chaplain bless and forgive his captors. He helped carry Kapaun out of the mud hut and up a hill on a stretcher after Chinese soldiers ordered he be moved to a hospital, a wretched, maggot-filled place the POWs dubbed “the death house.” There was little or no medical care there. Kapaun died on May 23, 1951.
These two soldiers — and many more — never forgot their chaplain. Not his courage in swatting away an enemy soldier pointing a gun at a GI‘s head. Not his talent for stealing food, then sneaking it to emaciated troops. Not the inspiring way he rallied his “boys,” as he called them, urging them to keep their spirits up.
The plain-spoken, pipe-smoking, bike-riding chaplain was credited with saving hundreds of soldiers during the Korean War. Kapaun (pronounced Kah-PAHWN) received the Distinguished Service Cross and many other medals. His exploits were chronicled in books, magazines and a TV show. A high school was named for him. His statue stands outside his former parish in tiny Pilsen, Kan.
But one award, the Medal of Honor, always remained elusive.
Dowe and other POWs had lobbied on and off for years, writing letters, doing interviews, enlisting support on Capitol Hill. Dowe’s recommendation was turned down in the 1950s.The campaign stalled, then picked up steam decades later. Kapaun’s “boys” grew old, their determination did not.
Now it has finally paid off.
On April 11, those two young lieutenants, Dowe and Wood, now 85 and 86, will join their comrades, Kapaun’s family and others at the White House where President Barack Obama will award the legendary chaplain the Medal of Honor posthumously.
“It is about time,” Dowe says.
Even now, Father Kapaun‘s story may still have one final chapter: sainthood.
The Korean conflict is sometimes called “the forgotten war,” overshadowed by the global cataclysm of World War II and the nation’s long struggle in Vietnam.
For veterans, though, there are vivid war memories: the desperation of eating weeds plucked from the dirt, the horror of discovering buddies who’d died overnight, the evanescent joy of taking a few puffs on their chaplain’s pipe. Many men of the 3rd Battalion, 8th Cavalry regiment, credit Kapaun for their survival, …read more
Source: FULL ARTICLE at Fox US News
A new priest-abuse lawsuit accuses church and local authorities of letting a Philadelphia-area priest flee to Poland during a stalled investigation.
The lawsuit says the priest assaulted a woman last year while counseling her at a Roman Catholic shrine in Bucks County.
The woman volunteered at Our Lady of Czestochowa (CHEST’-uh-HOV‘-uh) in Doylestown.
The Associated Press is not naming the accused priest because he could not be reached for comment.
He belongs to the Pauline Fathers, a religious order at the shrine. A woman who answered the phone Wednesday said the Pauline supervisors were “in prayer” and not available for comment.
The lawsuit also accuses Bucks County prosecutors and Philadelphia Archdiocese officials of failing to pursue the complaint and letting the priest flee.
Neither office immediately returned phone messages.
A night on the town turned into a six-hour-long nightmare after an American woman was gang raped and beaten aboard a public transit van while her handcuffed French boyfriend looked on helplessly, in an incident that’s shocked this resort city as it gears up to host next year’s World Cup and the 2016 Olympics.
The police response to the attack was swift: The three alleged perpetrators, aged 20 to 22, have all been taken into custody, and investigators are combing databases to determine whether the men might have been behind any other crimes.
Many still ask whether Rio authorities, who have succeeded in cracking down on much of the city’s drug violence, are up to the task of protecting the waves of tourists expected to flood the city during the upcoming double-header of mega-events. Some 2 million people are also expected to flock to the city in late July for World Youth Day, a Roman Catholic pilgrimage that Pope Francis is scheduled to attend.
Some observers said the attack came as a particular shock given that safety has improved at least in the city’s tourist-friendly, seaside South Zone neighborhoods. Foreigners and moneyed local residents who even three or four years ago would have hesitated to hail a taxi in the street or walk around after dark now do both without thinking twice.
“No one expects to be attacked in Disneyland, handcuffed and roughed up,” Globo newspaper quoted Alfredo Lopes, the head of an association representing Brazil‘s hotel sector. “Copacabana is our Disneyland.”
Yet it was in that very beachfront neighborhood, full of senior citizens in bikinis by day but seedier by night, that the two foreigners hailed one of the fleet of public transit vans often used as a speedier alternative to buses. Police investigating the case say the two foreigners, both in their early-20s, were headed shortly after midnight Saturday to Lapa, a popular downtown nightlife hotspot where Rio’s youth converges on clubs, bars and samba venues.
But the pair never made it to their destination. A few minutes into their journey, the van operators forced the other passengers off and inflicted on the two foreigners what Alexandre Braga, the police officer leading the investigation, has called a “party of evil.”
The three suspects took turns raping the woman and beating the man, whom they handcuffed and sometimes struck with a metal crowbar, Braga told a news conference Tuesday.
A suspended Roman Catholic priest accused of making more than $300,000 in methamphetamine sales out of his Connecticut apartment and running an adult video and sex toy shop pleaded guilty Tuesday to a federal drug charge.
Kevin Wallin, of Waterbury, admitted to conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute methamphetamine and was scheduled to be sentenced June 25. The agreed-upon sentence is 11 to 14 years.
Prosecutors said the 61-year-old Wallin had meth mailed to him from co-conspirators in California and sold the drugs out of his Waterbury apartment last year. He sold nearly four pounds in all, prosecutors said. He also bought an adult video and sex toy shop in North Haven named Land of Oz & Dorothy’s Place, apparently to launder the drug money, authorities said.
Dubbed in some media as “Monsignor Meth,” Wallin was pastor of St. Augustine Parish in Bridgeport for nine years until he resigned in June 2011, citing health and personal reasons. He previously served six years as pastor of St. Peter’s Church in Danbury until 2002.
He was granted a sabbatical in July 2011. The Diocese of Bridgeport suspended him from public ministry last May.
He was arrested in January, and a grand jury indicted him and four other people on drug charges.
An undercover officer bought meth from Wallin six times from Sept. 20 to Jan. 2, paying more than $3,400 in total for 23 grams of the drug, authorities said.
Federal agents said they learned through wiretaps and informants about other sales Wallin was making.
Connecticut U.S. Attorney David Fein has said the arrests dismantled “a significant methamphetamine distribution organization that spanned from California to Connecticut.”
On social media, people couldn’t help but compare Wallin with Walter White, the main character on “Breaking Bad,” who was making so much cash that he and his wife bought a car wash to launder their profits.
Also charged in the case were Kenneth Devries of Waterbury; Michael Nelson of Manchester; Chad McCluskey of San Clemente, Calif.; and Kristen Laschober of Laguna Niguel, Calif. Authorities say McCluskey and Laschober were involved in the shipping of methamphetamine to Wallin.
An American woman and her French companion were brutally assaulted and held for hours aboard a public transport van they boarded in Rio de Janeiro’s showcase Copacabana beach neighborhood, police said in a statement.
The victims’ nationalities were identified by The New York Times. The two were held for around six hours starting shortly after midnight on Saturday, police said. Two men aged 20 and 22 have been taken into custody and a third is being sought in connection with the incident .
Police said the suspects forced other passengers to get out of the van and then sexually assaulted the American woman, 21, inside the vehicle, which was one of a fleet of vans that serve bus routes and seat about a dozen people. During the alleged assault, the tourists were driven to the poor suburban neighborhood of Sao Goncalo, where the two suspects were apprehended, the statement said.
Reports said the two had been studying Portuguese in Rio for about a month and that both left the country following the incident.
The statement said one of the victims’ cellphone was found in the suspects’ possession. The suspects had also used a debit card belonging to one of the victims at two gas stations, the statement said.
The Globo television network broadcast surveillance camera images of two men filling up the white van and showed police images of a metal bar the suspects are thought to have used to beat and intimidate the victims.
The victims positively identified the two suspects, and a Brazilian woman has said she’d also been assaulted by the pair on March 23, the statement said.
In an interview with Globo television, commanding officer Alexandre Braga, who heads the Rio police unit specializing in crimes against tourists, said the suspects had gone on a sex crime spree.
“The characteristics of both crimes, both the Brazilian case and the one with the foreigners, lead us to believe that they (the suspects) wanted to have a `party of evil,’ in quotes,” Braga said. “The principal motive appears to have been the satisfaction of their lust.”
He added that the robbery and other crimes appear to have been “secondary.”
Multiple calls to police seeking further detail Monday have not been returned.
The incident raises new questions about security in Rio, which has cracked down on once-endemic drug violence in preparation for hosting next year’s soccer World Cup and the 2016 summer Olympic games.
The city will also be playing host to World Youth Day, a Roman Catholic pilgrimage expected to draw some 2 million people in late July.
The attack also drew comparisons with the fatal December beating and gang rape of a young woman on a New Delhi bus. Six men beset a 23-year-old university student and male friend after they boarded a private bus, touching off a wave of protests across India demanding stronger protection for women.
In Brazil, more than 5,300 cases of sexual assault were reported between January and June 2012, according to the country’s Health Ministry.
Click for more from The New York Times
The Associated Press contributed …read more
Source: FULL ARTICLE at Fox World News
By The Huffington Post News Editors
SAN PEDRO CUTUD, Philippines — Devotees in villages in the northern Philippines took part in a bloody annual ritual to mark Good Friday, a celebration that mixes Roman Catholic devotion and Filipino folk beliefs and sees some reenact the crucifixion of Jesus Christ.
The crucified devotees spent several minutes nailed to crosses in Pampanga province while thousands of tourists watched and took photos of the spectacle, which the church discourages. Earlier in the day, hooded male penitents trudged through the province’s villages under the blazing sun while flagellating their bleeding backs with makeshift whips. Others carried wooden crosses to dramatize Christ’s sacrifice.
