PANAJI
The Catholic community marked Good Friday across the State with liturgical services, prayers, penance and processions to reflect on the Passion and Death of Jesus Christ.
Prayer services were conducted in churches, chapels and catholic institutions since morning and they included the Way of the Cross to reflect on the 14 key events on the day of Christ’s crucifixion on the Mount Calvary. The main religious service was conducted in the evening.
While no Mass is celebrated on Good Friday, the Church celebrated a special liturgy service in which the account of the Passion of Jesus was read, followed by a series of intercessory prayers (prayers for special intentions) for the Church, the Pope, the bishops, priests and deacons, Christians and non-Christians, secular leaders and governments, and other intentions.
This was then followed by the veneration of the Cross by the faithful and the Good Friday service concluded with the distribution of Holy Communion.
After the liturgy services, most parishes conducted processions of Christ symbolically laid in a coffin, which were followed by prayer services and night vigils.
Cardinal Felipe Neri Ferrao was the main celebrant at the Good Friday services in the See Cathedral, while Auxiliary Bishop Simião Purificação Fernandes presided over the service at the Chapel in the Bishop’s House in Panaji.
Unique Procession of Great Copes
The See Cathedral witnessed the unique Procession of the Great Copes (Procissão das Capas Magnas), a tradition going back to about 150 years and the only procession of its kind in Asia.
Canons participated in a procession with their faces covered and wearing black copes, which flow behind in the shape of a tail.
The ‘great cope’ is part of the indumentary of the Canon of the Cathedral in Goa; he wears it only on one occasion, during a unique procession of the Canons after the Liturgical ceremony of the Good Friday.
The life-sized statue of Jesus in a coffin followed the procession, which went around the Church before being kept inside the Chapel of the Miraculous Cross.
Cardinal Ferrao prayed in front of the statue of Jesus with the participation of the Canons. After the prayers ended, the devotees were allowed to kiss the statue of Jesus.
