In 1997 the news services reported 15 people, including a woman, gave themselves up for crucifixion in the Philippines. One Filipino, Arnel Sanggalang, two years ago surprised many of his friends by vowing to undergo the crucifixion rite for the next 25 years. He said it was his way of thanking God after his mother recovered from an illness. Another man named Bob Velez has become famous for being crucified 11 times.
I knew someone in the military who said he actually witnessed a crucifixion over there. What shocked him was not the person getting nailed to a cross, but the fact people were selling hotdogs and T-shirts to the crowd. A few years ago, the Philippines Department of Tourism was an official sponsor of the re-enactments.
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SAN FERNANDO, Pampanga- Five penitents who were nailed on crosses during the Good Friday crucifixion rites in Barangay San Pedro Cutud here were hospitalized when their wounds failed to stop bleeding. It was the first time in the decades-old reenactment of the crucifixion of Jesus Christ that penitents nailed on the cross here were actually injured.
The mishap was blamed on a neophyte nailer. Sun.Star: Clark gathered from San Pedro Cutud barangay councilor Jun David that he rushed Arnel to the Jose B. Lingad Memorial Hospital when bleeding from the wounds in his palms after the crucifixion at high noon on Good Friday did not stop. David said Arnel's examination showed that a bone in one of his hands has been damaged while a blood vessel was ruptured.
Despite his injury, the younger Sangalang, a penitent for the past six years, is reportedly still willing to undergo the gory Lenten ritual in this town which the Catholic Church frowns upon. He said it was an act of sacrifice to relieve his parents and his child of sickness. According to David, the rest of the injured penitents, all veterans of the ritual, also complained of continuous bleeding, unlike in past years' crucifixions when the bleeding on their wounds stopped almost instantly after the rites.
David said that a certain Dolfo Caireon was tasked with nailing the penitents. It was his first year in the job and inherited it from his dead brother. However, the penitents claimed that they expected Cardo Carreon, Dolfo's niece, to perform the ritual. Former Mayor PatGuevarra, a resident of Barangay San Pedro Cutud, provided medicines and food to Arnel and the rest of the severely injured penitents. Arner's elder brother Chito was surprised upon learning that Dolfo would crucify them, David revealed.
David, a 13-year veteran of the ritual, described the injuries suffered by his fellow penitents as simply accidental. He blamed the huge crowd at the crucifixion site as the reason why the nailer failed to properly drive the nails into their palms. He predicted that the large number of penitents who made their sacrifices is an offering to the Lord in order to save Barangay San Pedro Cutud from further lahar destruction.
Victor Caparas, another injured penitent, was reportedly resting in Arayat town. His left foot was also damaged. He reportedly fell ill hours after the crucifixion. ........"A neophyte nailer??"
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Why Ugandans shun Christ's lubengo
By Robert Mugagga
The Sunday Monitor (newspaper) March 30, 1997
Take an example of Good Friday, the day on which the son of man was "hanged" at the hill of Golgotha. Here in Uganda as usual the day was celebrated with the "way of the cross" marching throughout the land. Nothing more was witnessed in this land considered to have one of the biggest number of Christian martyrs and proclaimed saints in Africa and the whole world. Brave deeds experienced elsewhere like believers giving themselves up to be crucified in memory of Christ are however, still unheard of here. Some attribute this to our peoples' genuine and mature understanding of scriptures which says that God no longer requires human sacrifices and even that man has no control over his body because it belongs to God (Cor13:3).
Besides, by sacrificing themselves for crucification, in most cases such people aim at glorifying themselves yet when all glory, we are told should belong to God. A friend though gives a different explanation: To him Ugandans are not only lacking in faith but are cowards who can't be compared to the types that carry out suicide bombings and volunteer to be 'crucified'. In the Philippines, for instance, it is a common practice on Good Friday for a number of Christians to give themselves up for crucifixion while others undergo other bizarre rituals like walking on bent knees in churches.
This year Reuters reported 15 penitents including a woman who gave themselves up for crucifixion in the Philippines, a country where 85 percent of it 68 million people are Catholics. Other Filippinos like Bob Velez who has undergone the crucifixion ritual 11 times have become famous. Another Filippino, Arnel Sanggalang two years ago surprised many by declaring and vowing to undergo the crucifixion rite for the next 25 years as a sign of thanks to the Almighty for having recovered his mother.
Whereas such rites are permitted in the Philippines, elsewhere they are condemned and severely dealt with by both the church and the law. In the 1980s, just across the border in Kenya a crucifixion circus was observed around this period of the year. One David Mugo organised his own crucifixion near his home in Mombasa but his second attempt was thwarted by police who quickly moved in to uncrucify him. He reportedly protested as policemen struggled to remove him from a giant wooden cross and even refused to be interrogated by the arresting officers, vowing to talk only to bishops. He argued that even Jesus refused to talk to the police (The Romans). Mugo was later accused of trying to commit suicide though he insisted that he owed this to God - having been among the only two survivors in an accident which claimed over 20 lives ten years before.
WEIRDNUZ.481 (News of the Weird, April 25, 1997) by Chuck Shepherd *
Carrying on a 40-year tradition, Filipinos in the village of San Pedro Cutud recently conducted their Easter audience-participation crucifixion ceremonies, with 12 volunteers nailed to crosses with sterilized 4-inch spikes in a show of absolution. As News of the Weird reported in 1990, for several years the Philippines Department of Tourism was an official sponsor of the event.
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http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/03/29/filipino-devotees-reenact_0_n_2978190.html?utm_hp_ref=world&ir=World
Filipino Crucifixion Reenactment On Good Friday Draws Penitents And Onlookers, by Aaron Favila, 3/29/13, AP
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.
Devotees undergo the hardships in the belief that such extreme sacrifices are a way to atone for their sins, attain miracle cures for illnesses or give thanks to God.
Alex Laranang, a 58-year-old vendor who was the first to be nailed to a cross Friday, said he was doing it “for good luck and for my family to be healthy.”
It was the 27th crucifixion for sign painter Ruben Enaje, 52, one of the most popular penitents from San Pedro Cutud village. He began his yearly rite after surviving a fall from a building.
Enaje screamed in pain as men dressed as Roman soldiers hammered stainless steel nails into his palms and feet. A wireless microphone carried his voice to loudspeakers for everyone watching to hear.
His cross was raised and he was hanged there for several minutes under the searing afternoon sun before the nails were pulled out and he was taken on a stretcher to a first aid station.
“It’s intriguing and fascinating what makes people do something like this, how you can believe so much that you make yourself suffer to that extent,” said Dita Tittesass, a tourist from Denmark.
Remigio de la Cruz, the chief of San Pedro Cutud village, explained that the practice began in his village in the 1950s.
Archbishop Jose Palma, president of the Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines, told the church-run Radio Veritas that the practice is “not the desire of Jesus Christ.”
“We are aware that this has been practiced long before ... but we still hope that this will not be done any more,” he said. “We should all concentrate on prayers.”
