The raging war in the Middle East has affected how the 89 million Catholics in the Philippines are celebrating their most important religious season, the Christian Holy Week.
With rampaging fuel prices since both US and Israel initiated hostilities in West Asia, millions of Filipinos are choosing to hold their traditional “visita iglesia” in nearby churches to save on fuel expenses.
Observed on Good Friday when Catholics visit seven churches to pray, the visita iglesia is a tradition many Filipinos believe would grant them their prayers and wishes.
In previous years, devotees preferred visiting grander parishes, especially churches that host relics from Catholic saints they consider miraculous.
The ritual had even grown to extended families or neighborhood associations visiting faraway churches and ferried by buses and vans, especially Spanish colonial-era structures they say are more spiritually significant.
Manuel and Eden Alcaraz, however, have chosen to take their scooter instead of their car to seven churches around their Quezon City district this year. “Our fuel costs would be significantly lower. God would understand,” Eden said.
The couple paid around P300 for gasoline before they started their church visits.
Other Catholics have a more radical answer to prohibitive fuel prices brought about by the war in West Asia: biking.
The Angeles City government has organized a “biking visita iglesia” around the city’s parishes and shrines. The city’s information office said city personnel would be assisting participants from 8AM to 8PM on Good Friday. “Whether you’re riding for devotion, reflection, or experience..be part of this journey,” it said.
Even the devotees’ prayers have been slightly altered this year. Lily Castro said that on top of her usual prayers of thanks and for her family’s good health, she is beseeching for the war in the Middle East to stop.
“I notice my children being worried about huge fuel and liquefied petroleum price increases every week,” the 86-year old retiree said. “I am also praying for the safety my relatives and acquaintances who are in the Middle East,” she said.
Earlier, urban poor group Kadamay and transport group Piston led a protest rally near Malacanang Palace in Manila, dramatizing their sufferings because of the war as well as ineffective government response.
In their annual “Kalbaryo ng Mamamayan” (People’s Calvary) they carried crosses symbolizing global wars, fuel price increases, poverty, government corruption, among others as modern day agonies.
Pope Leo XIV strongly condemned the U.S.-Israeli war on Iran in his Palm Sunday mass, urging an immediate ceasefire, calling the conflict an “atrocious” tragedy and asking Catholics to pray for the war to end. # (Raymund B. Villanueva)
