MANILA, Philippines (AP) — At least 1.8 million mostly barefoot Catholic worshippers marched Thursday in an annual procession in the Philippines that venerates a centuries-old black statue of Jesus. Some said they prayed for good health for their families, an end to tensions in the South China Sea, and for incoming U.S. President Donald Trump to be kinder to Filipino immigrants.
The procession marks the feast of Jesus Nazareno and is a major annual Catholic event in Asia. The image was previously called the Black Nazarene, but church officials appealed for a change, saying the former name was not founded in history and evoked a racial slur.
The procession in Manila began before dawn Thursday, lasting nearly 21 hours as it crawled along the 6-kilometer (3.7-mile) route. The statue was finally brought inside the Minor Basilica and National Shrine of Jesus Nazareno, also known as Quiapo Church, at 1:25 a.m. on Friday.
Brig. Gen. Anthony Aberin, director of the capital region’s police, said the crowd was estimated at around 1.8 million at one point in the afternoon.
Last year, at least 2 million devotees joined the 15-hour procession, with some estimates of the crowd as high as over 6 million.
Reverend Father Robert Arellano, a spokesperson of Quiapo Church, said th …