Faithful Catholics on Philippinesthis deeply religious country, kept its custom Good Friday: self-flagellation in the back until they fuck.
Dozens of hooded men walked barefoot with their backs to bamboo whips under a clear blue sky near the capital Manila, some carrying wooden crosses.
This ritual is condemned by the Church.
Roy Balatbat, with scratched skin, walked for about a mile yesterday, hitting his body and stopping to kneel and pray on the scorching earth.
“It’s difficult, but if you have a wish, you will endure the pain,” the 49-year-old told AFP in Hagonoi, Bulacan province.
“I have been doing it for 30 years, since I was young. “I will not stop until I can.”
Most believers in this nation, most of whom are Catholics, may spend Good Friday in church or with their families, but others go to great lengths to atone for their sins or to seek divine intervention.
Before the whipping begins, the men’s bare backs are pierced with needles to bleed.
Believers take the opportunity to show their scars from previous floggings, while others are undergoing this punitive act for the first time.
“I hurt the penitents, if they do not bleed a lot, they will ask for another one to be forgiven of their sins,” explains Reinaldo Tolentino, 51.
“They will not feel pain in their repentance unless they are sincere in their actions.”
Good Friday is also marked by representations of the Crucifixion in a town north of Manila, but this year it was canceled for a third year due to Covid-19.
A dozen Catholics are crucified with nails on wooden crosses in a kind of repentance for their sins. The spectacle attracts thousands of tourists.
“We do not encourage acts of self-flagellation and crucifixion,” said Father Jerome Setsilano, executive secretary of the Public Affairs Committee of the Conference of Catholic Bishops of the Philippines.
“The Passion and the Crucifixion of Christ are already enough to save humanity,” he told AFP, adding that God-fearing people would do better to “confess their sins.”
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