Though this is not something the Catholic Church has kept a secret, for many, if not most of the faithful, this is a piece of news.Christ's last two falls, the seventh and ninth stations, have been stricken off the 14 stations by Pope John Paul II in the early 1990s.
As a result, inside the centuries-old Sta Ursula Parish in Binangonan, Rizal, the seventh and ninth tableaux representing the two falls have been replaced with those showing Simon of Cyrene helping Jesus carry the cross and Jesus being nailed, respectively.
Simon used to be on the fifth tableau while the nailing scene was on the 11th.
While the old sets were called the pre-Vatican version, which is based on long-held tradition, the new one is the Biblical version because supposedly it is a more faithfuladherence to biblical account, according to Fr. Dave Vincent Onilongo of the Sta. Ursula Parish, one of the country's oldest parishes.
"We are going by the biblical account since many Catholics have rediscovered the Holy Bible," said Onilongco, who took up his theological studies at the University of Santo Tomas Ecclesiastical Faculties.
"There is nothing in the Bible that says Jesus falls more than once."
Of the 14 original stations, only two - the eight and the 12th - remain in their respective slots.
The eighth still shows Jesus consoling the pious women of Jerusalem and the 12th showing Jesus dying on the cross.
The first station now is the Last Supper instead of Jesus being condemned to death.
Instead of Jesus taking up the cross on the second station, it is now Jesus praying in the garden of Gethsemane, which was nowhere in the old version.
Jesus would receive the cross on the fifth station.
Instead of Jesus being stripped of his clothes on the 10th, the station now shows Jesus and Dimas, the repentant thief. Jesus being undressed has disappeared in the new version.
After Jesus died on the cross on the 12th, he was immediately laid in the tomb, making it the 13th station.
In the old version, Jesus was taken down from the cross on the 13th.
Emphasis on Resurrection
On the 14th, from the scene showing Jesus going down among the dead comes something new seeking to affirm and revitalize the Catholic faith, the Resurrection of Christ, which the old version seemed to have forgotten.
Said Onilongo: "We want to give due importance to the Resurrection now." With the old tableaux out, so go the attending prayers and rituals. Gone are references on the second and third falls, often used as basis for enduring one's many trials.
Once valued at P1 million each, the 14 original stations are as old as the Sta. Ursula Parish church built in 1621 on a nearly 1,000-sqm prime lot in the town's poblacion.
They have survived the last two wars and natural disasters, but a powerful typhoon sometime in 1997 ripped the Church's roofs and ceiling, leaving behind most of the paintings wet and soiled.
Aesthetics wise, the old stations are more eye-catching than the new ones done by some of the town's talented but quite unknown artists.
Late last year, the parish raised more than a €1 million to pay for the repair of the old stations and the restoration of its 70-foot high tableau.
The repair work turned the old and dull retablo into something arrestingly bright. It revealed its rustic appeal after the paint was removed to reveal the four-foot-thick adobe wall.
According to the town's municipal engineer Nelson Pajarillo, the church can last another 100 years.
But more than the visual rehabilitation, Onilongo did something that earned him cheers from the faithfuls: He returned the statue of Sta. Ursula at the center of the retablo in full regalia.
The statue of the British saint who died a virgin was taken out of the retablo after some quarters expressed doubts that she was a real saint for lack of records.
He also put the old 14 tableaux where they used to belong. He put them and the old sets of 14 tableaux atop each other for everybody to see.
"If the old can help the strengthen the faith," he said, "why not?'
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