Belgian woman joins Filipinos in crucifixion

Belgian woman joins Filipinos in crucifixion

SAN PEDRO CUTUD, Philippines (Agencies): A Belgian former novice nun, a Filipino thief and at least 12 other Filipinos were nailed to crosses while hundreds flogged themselves with whips in traditional bloody Good Friday rites.

Godelieve Rombaut, 54, grimaced in pain as Filipinos dressed as Roman soldiers hammered 10-centimeter spikes through her palms. Hundreds of local and foreign tourists surged forward to see the re-enactment of Christ's crucifixion.

"It's something I have to do...it's a duty," the 54-year-old insurance agent from Flanders told reporters before she was impaled on the cross amid circus-like scenes in San Pedro Cutud, a dusty farming village 75 kilometers north of Manila.

Rombaut, a Roman Catholic, was one of 14 penitents reported crucified in fierce summer heat in villages around Manila.

The rest were Filipinos, including a faith healer, a pedicab driver, a sign painter and a fisherman serving a four-year jail term for robbery.

It was the first time a foreigner had taken part in a gory ritual that has become a tradition among religious zealots in the overwhelmingly Roman Catholic Philippines.

About 1,500 spectators, including nuns and tourists from the United States, Germany, Japan, Singapore and Taiwan, looked on as Rombaut and the others were raised.

In towns and villages across the country, hundreds of other Filipinos marked the day by flogging themselves on the back with crude whips until the blood flowed freely.

Church leaders frown on the violent rituals but do not actively try to stop them.

People who have themselves crucified generally ask for divine favors or thank God for those already given. Some say they do it save the world from sins.

Garbed in a white robe and with flowing wavy tresses, Rombaut stayed on the upraised cross for about five minutes and collapsed after she was brought down.

Aides quickly bathed her hands with antiseptic before bandaging them.

Fernando Macapagal, 38, who has had himself crucified for 10 straight years, writhed in pain after hanging on the cross for 15 minutes. He said he was doing it to ask for good health for his family.

"I have a lot of respect for those who commit themselves to this kind of penance," American student Louie Nguyen, 24, said. "Except that the event has become some kind of a circus."

Since 1960

Crucifixions have been organized in this provincial capital 50 kilometers north of Manila since 1960, and the event has become a minor tourist attraction and media event.

Yesterday's event was far from solemn. Vendors hawking food and cold drinks mingled with the crowd, which included entire families who came to watch the show. Attendants had to push back tourists and journalists pressing around the crosses for a better picture.

One of the 10 men crucified here yesterday, a 33-year-old baker who identified himself as Arnilo, said he had been doing it for four years to pray for his sickly brothers and sisters.

He claimed everytime he undergoes crucifixion, anyone who is sick in the family usually feels better.

Two other penitents were nailed to crosses in the northern city of Laoag, famous for ancient churches built by missionaries during more than three and a half centuries of Spanish colonial rule of the Philippines.