Har Shalom to honor couple at party
Congregation Har Shalom will host a Farewell Party and Appreciation Celebration for Herb and Enid Brodsky for their many contributions to the congregation at 7 p.m. April 11 at Har Shalom, 2537 County Road 203.
The community is invited.
For more information, call 749-0491.
Filipino devotees nailed to crosses
SAN PEDRO CUTUD, Philippines – Screaming in pain, Filipino devotees had themselves nailed to wooden crosses to mimic the suffering of Jesus Christ on Good Friday in Asia’s largest Roman Catholic nation.
Church leaders have spoken against the annual practice mixing Catholic devotion with folk belief, but it continues to draw big crowds, particularly in northern Pampanga province.
Painter Ruben Enaje, 54, was among half a dozen men whose hands and feet were rubbed with alcohol before locals dressed as Roman soldiers hammered sterilized nails into his flesh.
He has repeated the same act for the last 29 years as part of giving thanks after surviving a fall from a building. This year, he added a gadget– a small microphone near his mouth, although a technical glitch made it difficult to hear him utter Christ’s last words.
The re-enactment of Christ’s crucifixion at a dusty mound in San Pedro Cutud village drew at least 4,000 spectators and tourists, dozens of them foreigners. Unlike in the past, organizers this year banned foreigners from being nailed to crosses to prevent the event from “becoming a circus,” said Councilor Harvey Quiwa.
Pope washes feet of 12 inmates, infant
VATICAN CITY – Pope Francis washed the feet of 12 inmates and a baby at Rome’s main prison Thursday in a pre-Easter ritual meant to show his willingness to serve.
He asked them to pray that he, too, might be cleansed of his “filth.”
As the inmates wept, Francis knelt down, poured water from a pitcher onto one foot apiece, dried it and then kissed it, re-enacting the ritual that Jesus performed on his apostles before he was crucified.
The inmates included six men from Rebibbia prison and six women from the nearby women’s detention center. One was a mother carrying her son on her lap: Francis washed and kissed his little foot as well.
Francis has revolutionized the Holy Thursday foot-washing ceremony by performing it on women and non-Catholics as well as by travelling to detention centers and facilities for the sick. Vatican rules say the ritual should be performed on men, given that Jesus’ apostles were male.
In a Holy Thursday homily delivered in the prison chapel, Francis sought to give the inmates hope, telling them that Jesus loved them to the point of giving his life for each and every one of them.
Herald Staff & Associated Press
