2 deaths too many

Two devotees died in the course of the Black Nazarene procession last week. Rodrigo Gorion, 44, reportedly one of the “official escorts” of the carriage bearing the venerated image, had a heart attack while atop the andas that was then being wheeled out of Quiapo Church. The haunting photo of a lifeless Gorion being brought down from the carriage seemed to speak volumes about the complex, contradictory nature of the annual religious rite: The heaving sea of humanity seemed less concerned with the tragic death in their midst—Gorion was face down and half-naked, his shirt inadvertently stripped off him by people trying to bring him down—than with their fervid quest to push and elbow their way toward the ebony image, a supreme mission that not even the actual death of a codevotee could frustrate or stop.

Some 19 hours after the procession had started, another death was reported. Christian Mel Lim, 18, was found dead outside Quiapo Church at 4 a.m., just after the devotees had completed their arduous trek and returned the image to its sanctuary. According to reports, Lim and a 15-year-old friend had joined the horde that welcomed the Nazarene back, but Lim was trampled on in the melee. Police noted that Lim had suffered fatal cuts and bruises, with “footprints” all over his battered body.

None of the pious in that crowd had the heart to assist a boy about to be crushed to death? Or was the communal ecstasy too great, the surging force too overwhelming, that no one noticed, or cared to, that they were trampling on a prone body? And why are 15-year-olds being allowed to join processions as potentially dangerous as this one? Is that recklessness on the parents’ part, or is it all of a piece with the notion that animates the spirit of the millions of devotees who flock to the Nazarene—that part of their devotion is the inevitable risk of injury, even death, and the Lord’s will be done?

On top of the two fatalities, this year’s traslacion tallied over 600 persons injured. The past four years saw no devotee getting killed, but the injuries were still considerable: 1,686 in 2014; 1,710 in 2013; 569 in 2012; 708 in 2011. Three people died in 2010, with 450 injured.

Social media typically divides into two camps during the season of the Black Nazarene. On one side are the secularists and pragmatists who are quick to dismiss the annual religious tradition as a showcase of fanaticism and mindless belief, a powerful but misguided avenue for hope in a people who have not much else to cling to. On the other side are those who defend the people’s right to express their faith, who insist that such rituals and expressions, no matter how peculiar to the disinterested observer, could allow for meaning and purpose in their practitioners’ lives, giving them a greater sense of humanity and communitarian spirit.

Filipinos should, at all times, be free to express their religious beliefs, whatever these are, and for such expression to be protected and respected. That is enshrined in the law, and is at the heart of our republican society. But having said that, we also note that the Black Nazarene phenomenon, having grown by leaps and bounds as it has become one of the biggest media tropes at this time of year, hyped and floodlighted to within an inch of its life whenever January comes along, now presents unusual problems.

The millions who flock to it present enormous challenges in terms of crowd control, safety and security, sanitation and the like. It has become as much a matter of concern for civil authorities as it is for the Church, which should have primary responsibility for the management of the event, it being a religious affair first and foremost. But Quiapo Church appears to be as ineffectual as the Manila city government in enforcing the most basic safety regulations come traslacion time, hence the deaths and the injuries that now seem a matter of course for this supposedly holy occasion.

Perhaps the Church can be more vigorous in reminding devotees that fighting their way to the carriage bearing the Nazarene is no more effective than saying their prayers at a safe distance? Or come down more firmly against false belief—that handkerchiefs wiped on the image can cure illnesses, for example? Surely these needless deaths are not the sacrifice God demands from His or Her devoted flock. There should be more to faith than accidentally dying for it by being trampled in a stampede.