RAD­HI­CA DE SIL­VA

Se­nior Mul­ti­me­dia Re­porter

rad­hi­ca.sookraj@guardian.co.tt

Wor­ship­pers who came to San Fer­nan­do Hill to par­tic­i­pate in the an­nu­al Sta­tions of the Cross left dis­ap­point­ed on Good Fri­day as the parish­ioners from Our La­dy of Per­pet­u­al Help RC Church were barred from hold­ing the event in the tra­di­tion­al area.

But it did not stop the event from tak­ing place. With their usu­al solem­ni­ty, hun­dreds of de­vout Catholics took the Sta­tions of the Cross through the wind­ing streets of San Fer­nan­do where their parish priest Fa­ther David Khan called on cit­i­zens to show re­spect for one an­oth­er.

Hold­ing the cross for part of the jour­ney, Fa­ther Khan led the parish­ioners from Mount Mo­ri­ah Road, pro­ceed­ing down St James Street, High Street, and fi­nal­ly re­turn­ing to their church on Har­ris Prom­e­nade.

Speak­ing to CNC3 News, Fa­ther Khan ex­plained that the Oc­cu­pa­tion­al Safe­ty and Health Au­thor­i­ty (OS­HA) did not grant per­mis­sion to the church to uti­lize the hill this year, fol­low­ing the trag­ic in­ci­dent in­volv­ing school teacher Re­nee Mitchell, who fell 100 feet to her death while at­tend­ing a Car­ni­val fete on San Fer­nan­do Hill last Jan­u­ary.

“Be­cause of the ear­li­er tragedy that oc­curred dur­ing a fete which re­sult­ed in the loss of a life, OS­HA sus­pend­ed the use of the hill un­til prop­er fenc­ing is in­stalled,” Fa­ther Khan re­vealed.

He said the pro­ces­sion through San Fer­nan­do was well re­ceived.

 “We opt­ed to use the streets of San Fer­nan­do be­cause it is most ap­pro­pri­ate. This is where peo­ple meet and greet, es­pe­cial­ly in light of the cur­rent events un­fold­ing in our na­tion,” he ex­plained.

In his Good Fri­day mes­sage, Fa­ther Khan im­plored cit­i­zens to demon­strate re­spect.

 “This year’s Good Fri­day mes­sage is ded­i­cat­ed to re­spect, as it is sore­ly lack­ing in our so­ci­ety. While our na­tion­al watch­words are dis­ci­pline, tol­er­ance, and pro­duc­tion, the foun­da­tion of all these virtues lies in re­spect. Thus, to­geth­er we as­pire; to­geth­er we achieve,” he de­clared.

Ex­pound­ing fur­ther, he em­pha­sized, “The essence of the mes­sage is that we must live in truth. Who bet­ter ex­em­pli­fies truth than Je­sus Christ our Lord? He will­ing­ly em­braced the truth and sac­ri­ficed his life for it. Re­gret­tably, in our na­tion, lives are lost due to sin.”

Ad­dress­ing the re­cent in­ci­dent where­in a child was as­sault­ed by a men­tal­ly ill par­ent, Fa­ther Khan high­light­ed the church’s ad­vo­ca­cy for well-be­ing. 

“We not on­ly fo­cus on the spir­i­tu­al as­pect but al­so strive for holis­tic de­vel­op­ment among our peo­ple: phys­i­cal­ly, emo­tion­al­ly, and in­tel­lec­tu­al­ly. Nu­mer­ous pro­grams are tai­lored to­wards this en­deav­our,” he said.

The an­nu­al Sta­tions of the Cross are com­mem­o­rat­ed every year by Catholics. The jour­ney con­sists of four­teen events in the Pas­sion of Je­sus Christ, start­ing from his con­dem­na­tion by Pon­tius Pi­late and con­clud­ing with his bur­ial in the tomb. 

Each sta­tion por­trays a key mo­ment in Je­sus’ path to his cru­ci­fix­ion and death and parish­ioners are urged to re­flect on Je­sus’ ran­som sac­ri­fice through prayer and med­i­ta­tion as they make the an­nu­al pro­ces­sion.