• From Pakistan to Poland to the Brooklyn Bridge, Christians around the world celebrate Good Friday

    Dan Kitwood / Getty Images

    Pope Francis prays on the floor during a Papal Mass with the Celebration of the Lord's Passion inside St Peter's Basilica on March 29, 2013 in Vatican City, Vatican. Pope Francis is taking part in his first holy week as pontiff and will later today preside over the Way Of the Cross procession at the Colosseum in Rome.

    Sebastian Scheiner / AP

    Christian worshippers carry a cross towards the Church of the Holy Sepulcher, traditionally believed by many to be the site of the crucifixion of Jesus Christ, during the Good Friday procession in Jerusalem's Old City, Friday, March 29, 2013. Less than 2 percent of the population of Israel and the Palestinian territories is Christian, mostly split between Catholicism and Orthodox streams of Christianity. Christians in the West Bank wanting to attend services in Jerusalem must obtain permission from Israeli authorities. Israel's Tourism Ministry said it expects some 150,000 visitors in Israel during Easter week and the Jewish festival of Passover, which coincide this year.

    Kai Pfaffenbach / Reuters

    Members of the Italian community take part in a re-enactment of the crucifixion of Jesus Christ on Good Friday in Bensheim, southwest of Frankfurt March 29, 2013. Thousands of spectators watched the yearly Passion Play performed by about 100 laity actors. Holy Week is celebrated in many Christian traditions during the week before Easter.

    Kacper Pempel / Reuters

    Polish catholic devotees re-enact out the "Way of the Cross" on Good Friday as part of Holy Week celebrations at the Kalwaria Wejherowska near Gdansk, northern Poland March 29, 2013. Holy Week is celebrated in many Christian traditions during the week before Easter.

    Muhammed Muheisen / AP

    An elderly Pakistani Christian man, prays during a Mass on Good Friday in a church in Islamabad, Pakistan, Friday, March 29, 2013. Christians around the world are marking the Easter holy week.

    Eduardo Munoz / Reuters

    Frank Simmonds, of the Bay Ridge neighborhood of Brooklyn, carries a cross on the Brooklyn Bridge during the 18th annual 'Way of the Cross Over the Brooklyn Bridge Ceremony' in New York March 29, 2013. The ceremony, hosted yearly on the Christian holy day of Good Friday, includes walking from St. James Cathedral, over the Brooklyn Bridge to St. Peter's Church, in Manhattan. The event attracts approximately 2,000 people each year.

    Joel Saget / AFP - Getty Images

    Nuns take part in a Way of the Cross to celebrate Good Friday, in front of the Sacre-Coeur Basilica in Montmartre district, in Paris, on March 29, 2013.

     

  • Pontiff presides over Via Crucis procession on Good Friday

    Gabriel Bouys / AFP - Getty Images

    Pope Benedict XVI is shown at the Via Crucis (Way of the Cross) procession on April 6 in Rome. Christians mark the crucifixion of Jesus Christ on Friday in a series of ceremonies culminating on Sunday, when they celebrate Christ's resurrection.

    Read about the Pope's remarks from the event

    View a slide show of Easter celebrations around the world

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  • Penitence, pain as Christians mark Good Friday

    Dani Pozo / AFP - Getty Images

    Penitents leave San Pedro church carrying a statue depicting "Jesus the Poor" during a Holy Week procession on April 5, 2012 in Madrid, Spain. Christian believers around the world mark the Holy Week of Easter in celebration of the crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus Christ.

    Erik De Castro / Reuters

    A boy looks at the palm of a penitent nailed on a wooden cross during a reenactment of Jesus Christ's crucifixion on Good Friday in Barangay Cutud, San Fernando, Pampanga in northern Philippines, April 6, 2012.

    Dean Lewins / EPA

    Hundreds of people follow 'Jesus' played by Paul Cattanach as he drags a cross through Pitt Street Mall as part of the Wesley Mission's Good Friday, Way of the Cross Procession in Sydney, Australia, on April 6, 2012.

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  • Good Friday celebrations culminate around the world

    By Carissa Ray

    The variety and scale of celebrations across so many cultures makes for beautiful photography. Click here to see other scenes from Easter observances around the world.

    Chip Somodevilla / Getty Images

    Cardinal Donald Wuerl, Archbishop of Washington, blesses Benilda Tiongco as she enters the Cathedral of St. Matthew for the Good Friday mass April 22, 2011 in Washington, DC. About 200 Catholics followed the Via Crucis, or 'Way of the Cross,' and carried wooden crosses and statues from Our Lady, Queen of the Americas Catholic Church to the cathedral.

    Susana Vera / Reuters

    Women penitents wearing traditional mantilla scarves wait inside the Royal Palace to start the procession of the 'Santisimo Cristo de los Alabarderos' brotherhood during Holy Week in Madrid, April 22, 2011. Hundreds of Easter processions take place in Spain during Holy Week drawing thousands of visitors.

    Chris Seward / The News & Observer via AP

    Jeff Thomas endures the rain as he stands on a cross on Glenwood Ave as part of an Easter weekend awareness event for the Northpark Church in Raleigh, N.C. on Friday, April 22, 2011. Members of the church took shifts on the cross for 1/2 - hour or an hour throughout the day.

    Esteban Felix / AP

    A child dressed as Jesus Christ is carried by a man as they take part in "Los Encadenados," or "The Chained Ones" procession on Good Friday during Holy Week in Masatepe, Nicaragua, Friday, April 22, 2011.

    Juan Karita / AP

    A man builds a sand sculpture of the face of Jesus Christ during Holy Week celebrations in Arenal de Cochiraya, on the outskirts of Oruro, Bolivia, Friday, April 22, 2011.

    Jorge Dan Lopez / Reuters

    Inmates take part in the re-enactment of the crucifixion of Jesus Christ on Good Friday in a jail in Mexico City April 22, 2011.

    Andreas Solaro / AFP - Getty Images

    Faithful carry the Cross during one of the stations of the Way of the Cross led by Pope Benedict XVI on Good Friday on April 22, 2011 in front of the Colosseum in Rome.

  • Alvaro Barrientos / AP

    A masked penitent is comforted by a brotherhood colleague at the end of his penance during the 'Los Picaos' brotherhood Good Friday procession in San Vicente de la Sonsierra, northern Spain, Friday, April 22. Hundreds of processions take place throughout Spain during the Easter Holy Week.

    Sebastian Scheiner / AP

    Christian pilgrims hold crosses on their way to the Church of the Holy Sepulcher, traditionally believed to be the site of the crucifixion and burial of Jesus Christ, during the Good Friday procession and the Way of the Cross, in Jerusalem's Old City, Friday, April 22. Christian pilgrims from around the world filled the narrow cobblestone streets of Jerusalem's Old City on Good Friday, some carrying large wooden crosses as they followed the route Jesus took on the way to his crucifixion.

    Christians mark Good Friday in Spain and Jerusalem

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  • People nailed to crosses in Good Friday ritual

    AP reports: At least 24 Filipinos were nailed to wooden crosses to re-enact Jesus Christ's suffering in a local Good Friday rite rejected by Catholic church leaders but witnessed by throngs of believers and thousands of tourists.

    Romeo Ranoco / Reuters

    Portraying Jesus Christ, Menandro Penafiel, 34, falls to the ground after being whipped and kicked by Roman soldiers to reenact Christ's persecution and death during Good Friday in Boac town, Marinduque island, central Philippines, on Friday.

    Ruben Enaje, a 50-year-old sign painter, screamed in pain as villagers dressed as Roman centurions hammered four-inch, stainless steel nails through his palm and set him aloft on a cross under a brutal sun for a few minutes in San Pedro Cutud village in Pampanga province as thousands watched.

    Twenty-three other Filipino men were crucified in the rice-growing province, officials said.

    It was Enaje's 25th crucifixion. He says surviving nearly unscathed when he fell from a three-story building in 1985 prompted him to undergo the annual ordeal. Aside from thanking God, Enaje now prays for more painting jobs.

    "Not a bone in my body was broken when I fell from that building," Enaje said. "It was a miracle."

    "Now, I'm praying for good health and more clients," Enaje told The Associated Press.

    Erik de Castro / Reuters

    Spectators watch as a penitent is nailed to a cross during the Good Friday lenten crucifixion rites in Cutud at San Fernando city of Pampanga province in northern Philippines on Friday, April 22. Nearly two dozen Filipinos were nailed to crosses to re-enact the passion of Jesus Christ on Good Friday, in what they see as an extreme display of devotion which the Roman Catholic church criticizes as a distortion of the Easter message.

    Ahead of the crucifixions, throngs of penitents walked several miles (kilometers) through village streets and beat their bare backs with sharp bamboo sticks and pieces of wood, sometimes splashing spectators with blood. Some participants opened cuts in the penitents' backs using broken glass to ensure the ritual was sufficiently bloody.

    The gory spectacle reflects the Philippines' unique brand of Catholicism, which merges church traditions with folk superstitions. Many of the mostly impoverished penitents undergo the ritual to atone for sins, pray for the sick or a better life and give thanks for what they believe were God-given miracles.

    Erik de Castro / Reuters

    Penitent Ruben Enaje grimaces in pain as he is nailed to a cross on Friday.

    The most number of crucifixions were staged beside a ricefield in Pampanga's San Pedro Cutud village, where 15 men were nailed to crosses three at a time on a dusty mound as more than 30,000 people, including three European ambassadors, watched and snapped pictures. An ambulance stood by and more than 20 tourists fainted or got dizzy in the heat, officials said.

    Amid the festive air — villagers peddled bottled water, food and religious items everywhere — police and marshalls kept order. Some displayed banners with a reminder: "Silence please and take care of your belongings."

    Foreigners have been banned from taking part after an Australian comic got crucified under a false name a few years ago near Pampanga. Authorities also suspected that a Japanese man sought to be crucified as part of a porn film in 1996, tourism officer Ching Pangilinan said.

    "They made a mockery out of a local tradition," she said.

    Erik de Castro / Reuters

    Three-inch nails pierce the feet of a penitent crucified during the Good Friday lenten rites in San Juan on Friday.

     Church leaders in the Philippines, Asia's largest predominantly Roman Catholic nation, have frowned on the Easter week rituals, saying Filipinos can show their deep faith without hurting themselves.

    Archbishop Angel Lagdameo, based in Iloilo Province, said the crucifixions and self-flagellations are an "imperfect imitation with doubtful theological and social significance," adding that only Jesus Christ's death saved mankind.

    Pampanga Bishop Pablo Virgilio David said the bloody rites reflected the church's failure to fully educate many Filipinos on Christian tenets.

    Enaje and the other penitents said the church should respect their belief.

    "When I'm up there on the cross, I feel very close to God," Enaje said. "We grew up with this tradition and nothing can stop us."

    Erik de Castro / Reuters

    Penitents hang on crosses as they are crucified during Good Friday Lenten rites in Cutud, San Fernando Pampanga in northern Philippines on Friday.

    Red Cross officials' concern centered on possible health problems like infection, heat stroke, blood loss and even death from the intense beating. They urged devotees to consider other forms of penance, including donating blood.

    San Pedro Cutud village leader Remigio dela Cruz said no major health problem has befallen any penitent since the crucifixions began there in the 1950s. The nails are soaked in alcohol for as long as a year then sprinkled with holy water before use, he said.

    Dondi Tawatao / Getty Images

    Devout members of the religious sect "25 Mysteries Catholic Lay Missionaries" take part in a panata (or vow) called "Alay Luhod" to mark Holy Week in San Miguel town in Bulacan, Philippines, on Friday.