The Catholic Church wants to put a stop to the tradition where volunteers are truly crucified as part of the Easter celebration.
63 years old Ruben Enaje went to the cross already for the 35th time. His hands and feet were nailed with ten-centimeter nails to a wooden cross in a procession depicting Jesus’ way of suffering in Pampanga, in the northern parts of the Philippines. The drama of suffering on the hill of Calvary lasted ten minutes.
The piercing of the feet and hands with nails is an exceptional form of religious practice of the cross processions depicting the events of Easter. Ruben Enaje does not experience pain as a burden but as a competition that belongs to faith.
– I wonder what Jesus thought on the cross. The pain was not felt in the hands or feet, but in the whole body, says the axeman, who over the decades has also carried a cross he built himself, weighing tens of kilograms, Enaje tells news agency Reuters.
Enaje told in 2018 that he fell from the third floor at a construction site in the 1980s and was hospitalized. He considered his survival a miracle that calls for annual expressions of gratitude as long as the body endures the strain.
This year, Enaje hopes that her crucifixion will promote peace in Gaza, Ukraine and the South China Sea.
The Easter procession is a popular tourist event. Over the years, the carpenter Enajo has also become a local celebrity, who is asked for help in illnesses and adversity.
The Catholic Church embraces the Philippine tradition
Catholicism is the dominant religion in the island nation of 110 million inhabitants. About 80 percent of the population belongs to the Catholic Church.
The Catholic Church does not unreservedly accept the extreme form of imitating the events of Calvary, but considers the tradition brutal.
Jesus is considered to have atoned for the sins of believers by dying on the cross, but instead of mutilation, the Vatican recommends prayers and devotions as a sufficient form of penance.
According to the leadership of the Catholic Church in the Philippines, Christians can profess their faith by, among other things, charity work and donating blood.
However, the nailing tradition is firmly rooted, especially in the northern parts of the Philippines. This year there were 11 crucified.
In addition, many young men flog themselves with belts and bamboo sticks, or cut their skin with shards of glass to shed blood to atone for their sins.
Sources: AP, Reuters