More than 20K made online Visita Iglesia on Maundy Thursday, Good Friday

More than 20,000 Filipinos fulfilled online the tradition of visiting seven churches on Maundy Thursday and Good Friday, figures from the Visita Iglesia site of the Catholic Bishops' Conference of the Philippines showed. The number of visitors as of 5 a.m. Saturday had also breached the 200,000 mark, with the site getting 203,036 visitors as of 5:17 a.m. Saturday. Saturday's message on the site (www.visitaiglesia.net) quoted Pope Benedict XVI on Jesus Christ's entering the night to overcome it. "JESUS goes forth into the night. Night signifies lack of communication, a situation where people do not see one another. It is a symbol of incomprehension, of the obscuring of truth. It is the place where evil, which has to hide before the light, can grow. Jesus himself is light and truth, communication, purity and goodness. He enters into the night. Night is ultimately a symbol of death, the definitive loss of fellowship and life. Jesus enters into the night in order to overcome it and to inaugurate the new Day of God in the history of humanity," it said. As of 5:17 a.m. Saturday, the site had gained 203,036 visitors, 10,453 more than the 192,583 visitors registered at 5:33 a.m. on Good Friday. On the other hand, the site had gained 14,241 more visitors than the 178,342 visitors to the site as of 5 a.m. of Maundy Thursday. In contrast, the site did not breach the 100,000-visitor mark until Good Friday last year. More Filipinos were expected to continue the tradition virtually on Black Saturday. — LBG, GMA News