Manila, part 3: a country of believers.

I ended my last post saying that signs of religion are everywhere in Manila. 

80% of the Philippines is catholic, so I read. And they practice, carry out and show their belief everywhere and in any way they can.

My parents are catholics and I went to catholic schools. Nevertheless I am an atheist and humanist, not a catholic.

But probably due to my upbringings I have an aesthetic weakness for religious artefacts, like statues and images of Maria, crucifixes and so on. So I like to have a look in a church or temple whenever I come across one.

Walking along Roxas Boulevard, I ran into an open air mass mass. "Jesus saves". There was continuous singing, waving arms, and I was greeted as a long lost friend. "Here, sister, take this pamflet. One day you may need it.".

The female disciples were dressed like this.

And this was the outfit for the men. Helping people cross the street to attend the mass, guiding them and possibly converting them.

Many transportation here has catholic images and/or text:

In God we trust

God bless our trip

In the name of god

I walked into a few churches. Just on an ordinary wednesday around noon. And I found an ongoing mass in every one, with again lots of singing and quite a number of devotees. Amazing.

Not to speak of the poor, sick and homeless that were sitting and lying against the walls of these churches. Children begging for money, infants lying naked on the pavement, sleeping, together with their mothers and siblings. 

I have no idea if this got worse right after the latest typhoons and floods, but the overall poverty in Manila is shocking!

Like many other historic buildings, this church is a beautiful building, but in such a horrible state!

At least there were lots of flags to lighten up the dirty and deteriorated facade.

This facade was in good shape.

The lamb looks very cartoonish to me.

Beautiful ceiling and ongoing renovations.

There were heaps of statues:

Many of them were wearing real fabric clothes:

In office buildings and shoppingmalls there is often a 'chapel' or a 'shrine'.

So far for my catholic observations in Manila.

My next post, Manila, part 4, will be about the streets of Manila.