Stations of the Cross differ in many churches

There is probably no other event in the Roman Catholic calendar that can match the Lenten season in the variety of traditional observances. We are all familiar with the Ash Wednesday and Palm Sunday rituals, the reading of the “Pasyong Mahal,” the usually Maundy Thursday reflections of worshippers before the Stations of the Cross, the tourist attractions provided by Marinduque’s Moriones Festival throughout the season, and Pampanga’s farcical Good Friday crucifixions of the sinful, to name a few. Indeed, each one is symbolic of the penitential preparation of believers through prayer, penance, repentance, fasting, sacrifice and self-denial. Well, with the exception of one that stands out most unique of them all—the “Visita Iglesia” tradition.

The uniqueness may already be well-known to some, but allow me to dwell on them very briefly. First, not everybody but only he who owns a car, or those who, in groups, have the means to rent a van, can generally afford this rather expensive holy week sacrifice. Second, it partakes more of a summer escapade of sorts than an honest-to-goodness penitential exercise—what with the air-conditioned vans loaded galore with picnic foods and ice-cold drinks. And third, why can’t these church-hopping penitents offer a relatively fuller meaning to their once-a-year penance by kneeling and reflecting before all the Stations of the Cross in each of the 14 (for some, only seven) churches they visit, rather than stoop down and pray before only one station per church? As things are, had these penitents only done the third, they would have discovered—with the same degree of wonderment I had—that the churches all over the country quite ironically differ in the biblical episodes they depicted in their respective Stations of the Cross.

For example, some churches say Jesus fell on the cross three times while some say only once; Jesus takes and carries the cross on the second station in one church, but on the seventh station in another church; Veronica’s wiping of the blood from the face of Jesus appears in some but not in all churches; the station showing Jesus as he promises his kingdom to the “good thief” is not seen in some churches, but appears in many others, and so on and so forth. Indeed, the most confusing of these differences is that there are 15 Stations of the Cross in not a few churches, instead of the traditional 14 stations in most others.

Ah, thanks to the Internet which always has a ready answer for any question under the sun! It appears that Pope John Paul II introduced changes in the original Stations of the Cross by eliminating episodes that had no biblical reference or that which lacked liturgical significance, replacing them with those that have. The revised set first took effect on Good Friday of 1991; apparently, and this is odd, no parish priest has explained this matter to the flock.

Or worse, are some of our churches neglecting this wish of the Vatican?

—RUDY L. CORONEL,

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