More than 17 people were willingly nailed to wooden crosses in the Philippines today in a Good Friday re-enactment of the suffering and death of Jesus Christ.

Under the watch of villagers posing as Roman centurions, the men were crucified for a few minutes as part of a religious reenactment that occurs yearly, the AP reports. Daily Mail writes that the 2012 Good Friday re-enactment drew an estimated crowd of 10,000 worshipers.

Participants such as Filipino carpenter Ruben Enaje, who has done 26 crucifixions, say they the event is an important sacrifice for them and produces genuine contrition in their hearts.

“This is a spiritual vow as a way of thanking God for sparing my life. Even if the Church bans it, we will still keep doing it,” Enaje is quoted as saying by the UK’s Telegraph.

But Filipino church leaders are opposed to the practice, in which shirtless men first trudge miles hitting their backs with sticks; some had cuts made on their backs to maintain a bloody appearance. After the ritual, the penitents are brought down from the crosses and their wounds treated at on-site clinics.

“We do not judge and condemn, but we discourage” the ritual, says an archbishop.

Adds another leader:

“The church’s position is there’s no need to go through this physical and literal pain on the body because Christ already did that for us.”

Watch the video below as Filipino Christians re-enact Jesus’ crucifixion for Good Friday 2012.

Readers chime in: What your thoughts of the Filipino Good Friday crucifixion re-enactments? Why is it that men are still trying to atone for sins that were already paid for on the cross?

via Herald Sun