Pinoys in UAE do Visita Iglesia; visits to virtual site surpass 120k

Being hundreds of miles from home did not stop Filipinos in the United Arab Emirates from taking part in a traditional Visita Iglesia during the Holy Week. The Filipino community there organized visits to places of worship in the UAE, covering hundreds of kilometers, Catholic site AsiaNews reported Saturday. "Even though they had to emigrate to the (UAE) to earn their living, in Abu Dhabi, Filipino Catholics have not given up on their faith, despite the usual difficulties and restrictions imposed in Muslim countries. On Good Friday, Abu Dhabi’s small Catholic community went on the traditional pilgrimage of the ‘Seven Churches’ (Visita Iglesia) visiting the few Catholic places of worship that exist in the country, hundreds of kilometers from one another in some cases," AsiaNews reported Saturday. One of the organizers, Orlan Santos, who works as a clerk for Al Ain Hospital’s emergency department, said dozens took part in the event, despite the distance and desert heat. He said many of them are foreign Catholics who are in the UAE for work. “In the Philippines, the churches are all in the same neighborhood, but here they hundreds of kilometers from one another and we have to take the bus," he said. During the trip, the pilgrims recited the mysteries of the rosary to maintain an atmosphere of silence and meditation. The Visita Iglesia is a custom involving a traditional visit to seven Roman Catholic basilicas. Worshippers can choose the places they want to visit and at each church, they can meditate at two of the 14 stations of the Way of the Cross. For this year's pilgrimage, Filipinos in Abu Dhabi chose St. Joseph’s Church in Abu Dhabi, St. Mary’s churches in Dubai and Abu Dhabi, St. Francis of Assisi Church in Dubai, St. Michael’s Church in Sharjah, and St. Anthony de Padua Church in Ras al-Kaimah. Santos, one of 250,000 Catholic foreign workers in UAE, said he hopes his children will follow the tradition. “I can only hope that my children would follow what they see in us, and teach this to their future kids as well," Santos said. AsiaNews said the UAE is the only Gulf state that allows a certain degree of religious freedom and has not opposed Christian places of worship. Some 10 million Filipinos work abroad, about two million in Muslim countries, most of which ban churches and public display of the Christian faith. CBCP's virtual Visita Iglesia gets 120k visitors Meanwhile, visitors continued to log on to the Catholic Bishops' Conference of the Philippines' virtual Visita Iglesia, which got 124,369 hits as of 6:12 a.m. Saturday. This was nearly 40,000 more than the 88,431 visits the site got as of 5:10 a.m. Friday. The virtual Visita Iglesia site breached the 100,000 mark after noon Friday. The CBCP set up the site for Filipinos working abroad and who could not return to the Philippines during the Holy Week; and for those who could not physically make this year's church visits. — LBG, GMA News