Good Friday 'a time for reflection'

By Celeste Tarricone
Associated Press

Mexicans stumbled under heavy wooden crosses, Germans marched for peace, and heavily guarded worshippers in Israel followed Jesus' footsteps to his crucifixion as Christians worldwide commemorated Good Friday.

Considered one of Christianity's holiest days, Good Friday marks the suffering that Jesus experienced when he was betrayed by Judas, sentenced by Pontius Pilate and then crucified.

The holy day was marked with solemnity and sadness in Jerusalem. Violence shook the troubled holy city as hundreds of Christians followed Jesus' footsteps along the Via Dolorosa, or Way of Sorrows, where tradition says Jesus hoisted a cross on his back on the way to his crucifixion.

In Mexico, a predominantly Catholic country, thousands of faithful lined the streets in the gritty Mexico City neighborhood of Iztapalapa to watch a young man play the part of Jesus and drag a 200-pound wooden cross for several miles in a ritual celebrated for 159 years.

"We want people to look closer at their fundamental values," said Tito Dominguez, the procession's coordinator. "This is a time for reflection."

Men in black hoods flogged themselves with nail-studded whips and hauled bundles of thorn-ridden branches on their shoulders in Taxco, 60 miles south of Mexico City.

Pedro Reyes Limon, a 26-year-old restaurant manager chosen to play Jesus this year in Iztapalapa, said the physical pain was a small price to pay for his spiritual fulfillment.

"My heart is just opening up more and more. I have a lot of love for Jesus," he told Mexican television station Televisa.

On the other side of the world, in Mount Pulongbato, Philippines, three members of a Christian sect scaled a hilltop and were nailed to crosses before thousands of penitents.

Crucifixions and acts of self-flagellation are regular Lenten rites in the Philippines.

Jose Felipe, a 24-year-old carpenter and member of the Kristo Rey cult, said he went through his second crucifixion in hopes that the civil war in the southern Philippines will end.

"We are setting an example for sinful people to change so there can be peace," Felipe said before 4-inch nails were driven through his palms as several women intoned prayers in Latin and Chavacano, the local dialect. "In war, the civilians are always at the losing end."

Germans also marked Good Friday with calls for peace. Activists from Frankfurt urged marchers to demonstrate against the United States' "so-called war on terrorism," demanding that Germany withdraw its troops supporting the campaign.

In Vatican City, an increasingly frail Pope John Paul II scaled back his participation in Good Friday events but heard confessions in St. Peter's Basilica.

In Belfast, Northern Ireland, Catholic and Protestant politicians reflected on the Good Friday peace accord they reached four years ago.

"As we see the turmoil and despair today in the Middle East in particular, we should all the more value and protect what we so painstakingly created in the Good Friday agreement," said Irish Prime Minister Bertie Ahern, who helped negotiate the landmark pact of April 10, 1998.