People queue for Ash Wednesday celebration after officials ease COVID-19 health protocols

People trooped to churches early Wednesday morning as the Catholic faithful observe the start of the Lenten Season.

Mark Makalalad of Super Radyo's DZBB observed that long queues were formed at the Immaculate Conception Parish church in Pasig City to attend mass for the imposition of ash on their foreheads.

After two years, health protocols were at a minimum implementation that allow churches to return the practice of the imposition of ash on foreheads.

Amid the COVID-19 pandemic and the surge of cases, priests were only allowed to sprinkle ash on the heads of mass goers as part of the efforts of the Catholic Church to actively curtail the spread of the disease.

The Catholic Bishops' Conference of the Philippines (CBCP) earlier announced the change through guidelines issued on Saturday.

“The formula for the imposition of ashes ‘Repent, and believe in the Gospel,’ or ‘Remember that you are dust, and to dust you shall return’ is said only once ‘applying it to all in general.’ We will revert to the imposition of ashes on the forehead of the faithful,” according to the guideline that was signed by CBCP Episcopal Commission on Liturgy Chairman Bishop Victor Bendico.

“The sprinkling of ashes on the crown will remain an option. We have been reminded last year that this option is an ‘opportunity to catechize our people on both the penitential and baptismal characters of the Lenten season,” it added. -- BAP, GMA News