Church launches 'Pasyon' online

THE Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines (CBCP) has decided to introduce an online version of Pasyon, a traditional Holy Week practice.

CBCP Media Office director Msgr. Pedro Quitorio said they decided to make available an online version of the narrative of Jesus Christ's Passion, Death and Resurrection after seeing the success of their online Visita Iglesia.

"This year, we prepared for it. We expanded it now to include the Pasyon... You can just go online in the website www.visitaiglesia.net and listen to its compressed version," said Quitorio.

"The audio of all the 21 chapters of the Pasyon is uploaded there," he added.

And just like the online Visita Iglesia, the Church official said the project is not to condone laziness among the faithful.

"This is for those Filipinos working in countries, where there is no church, or those working in sea and have no way of going home this Holy Week," said Quitorio.

The Pasyon is traditionally held in the Philippines every Holy Week, beginning every Holy Monday until Black Saturday.

The popular tradition sees the singers/chanters staying in front of a specially constructed altar in shifts since it is done non-stop.

Lines of the narrative are systematically woven into a standard poetry with stanzas of five lines, with each one having eight syllables and is most of the times accompanied by music.

The Pasyon is also normally being broadcasted in the whole community using a megaphone. (AMN/Sunnex)