Nearly 2,000 Catholics walk in Palm Sunday procession

Nearly 2,000 Catholics, including young people, children and priests from Bucharest parishes as well as nuns and monks on Sunday marched in a Palm Sunday procession held in Bucharest by the Roman Catholic Archbishopric.

Photo credit (c): CONSTANTIN DUMA / AGERPRES FILES

During the procession, which took nearly one hour to complete and was soaked in rain, the celebrants carried budding branches and sang church hymns and songs.

The young people in the front of the procession carried a World Youth Day Cross to mark the World Youth Day, which is celebrated on the same day as Palm Sunday by the Catholic Church.

'This is a big day to the entire Christendom, because what happens today for the Roman Catholic believers is Palm Sunday, which signifies Lord Jesus the Saviour's triumphal march into Jerusalem,' said spokesman for the Roman Catholic Bishopric Francisc Dobos.

The route started at the French Church and continued down to the Aviatorilor Boulevard, the Victoriei Square, the Victoriei Road, General Berthelot Street, down to the St. Joseph Roman Catholic Cathedral.

The spokesman explained that the believers' prayers during the procession are for the entire city, not just for their own community.

At the end of the procession at the St. Joseph Cathedral, a church service was held presided over by Bucharest Metropolitan Bishop Ioan Robu.

Palm Sunday marks the beginning of the Holy Week, when the passions of Jesus Christ are remembered and reenacted. For the Catholic believers, taking part in the Palm Sunday procession and church service is a way of testifying their faith and unity with all the Catholics of Romania and the entire world. AGERPRES