Manila - At least 2 million barefoot devotees jammed the
streets in the Philippine capital on Friday in an annual procession
to honour a centuries-old statue of a suffering Jesus Christ.
More than 100 people were treated for minor injuries as the
devotees pushed and shoved to touch the Black Nazarene during the
5-kilometre procession from the Luneta Park grandstand to Quiapo
Church in downtown Manila.
Police Superintendent Roberto Rosales, a district police chief,
said the crowd swelled to at least 2 million as more devotees arrived
from outside Manila.
More than 1,500 police officers were deployed around Quiapo Church
and Luneta Park since Thursday night, when devotees of the Black
Nazarene began to gather for a vigil.
Traffic was re-routed away from the Quiapo Church, but surrounding
streets were still jammed due to the huge crowd.
Last year, two people were killed during the procession.
Manila Archbishop Cardinal Gaudencio Rosales said many Filipinos
are devoted to the Black Nazarene because they identify with his
suffering amid widespread poverty in the Philippines.
'Filipinos see Christ in themselves when they suffer from poverty
and oppression,' Rosales said in his homily at a dawn mass before the
procession began. 'In their devotion, they see God's love for them
amid all this misery.'
The life-size wooden statue of a dark-skinned Jesus Christ was
said to have been brought to the country by a Spanish priest from
Mexico in 1606.
Hundreds of people go to Quiapo Church every Friday to seek its
intercession to ease their sufferings or to make their dreams come
true.
The Feast of the Black Nazarene is one of the most celebrated
religious event in the predominantly Catholic Philippines, with more
than 80 per cent of the population adhering to the religion.
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