Bangladesh’s Catholic Community Marks Good Friday
DHAKA, Bangladesh — The 14 Stations of the Cross are a traditional Catholic devotion observed on Good Friday, commemorating key events of Jesus’ passion and death on the cross.
Like others from different parts of Bangladesh, Catholics work in various industries in the Zirani industrial area near Dhaka, mostly in the garment sector, to support themselves and their families.
Despite hardship, they have maintained their faith, as exemplified by the way they staged the Way of the Living Cross on April 3, which Catholics believe is the day Jesus suffered unbearable pain and gave up his life on the cross.
Photos by Stephan Uttom Rozario
Catholic youth, women and men performed in the Way of the Living Cross — a dramatic, reenactment of Jesus’ final hours — at the Jesus Worker Center in Zirani, about 19 miles from the capital, Dhaka. Despite their busy schedules, they made time to worship at the center.
In Muslim-majority Bangladesh, Easter Sunday is not an official holiday, but Good Friday is a public holiday, so about 200 Catholics gathered for the Way of the Living Cross.
There are approximately 400,000 Catholics in Bangladesh, making up less than 1% of the country’s total population.
A priest at the Jesus Worker Center, Bishwajit Bormon, said that despite the hardships, the workers did not neglect their religious observances.
“Just as Jesus gave his life on the cross for the salvation of mankind, these people are also working hard and suffering for the economic survival of their families,” he said.
Stephan Uttom Rozario is a journalist and photographer based in Dhaka, Bangladesh,