By Agence France-Presse and Leslie Ann Aquino

Catholic priests delivered blessings from the back of trucks and motorized tricycles on Palm Sunday yesterday, adapting the deeply Catholic nation's traditions to the battle against the coronavirus pandemic.

Locals lined up in front of their homes in a district of Manila, which is entering its fourth week of a lockdown that has brought the frenetic metropolis nearly to a halt.

The priests made signs of the cross as they rolled past waving residents marking Palm Sunday, the start of the week that culminates with the observance of Easter.

"This celebration will continue despite the spread of the virus," said Bong Sosa, who attended the blessing wearing a mask crafted from a water cooler bottle.

The quarantine that has shuttered schools and businesses and halted all social and religious events around most of the nation will likely be extended beyond mid-April, authorities have said.

Easter is a major holiday in the Philippines when millions typically return to their family homes outside the capital, but heavy restrictions on movement will disrupt those trips this year.

Bans on large public events will also mean that typically thronged churches will be empty save for priests performing mass that will be live-streamed into tens of millions of homes.

Not less holy

Catholic Church leaders said the absence of traditional Lenten religious activities like the Pabasa (chanting of the Lord's passion), the Visita Iglesia (church visit), and the Way of the Cross does not make the observance less holy.

Father Jerome Secillano, executive secretary of the Catholic Bishops' Conference of the Philippines Public Affairs Committee, said Holy Week is holy because of the sacrifice of Christ.

"It shouldn't be less holy since what makes it really holy is the sacrifice of Christ and not the participation of people," he said.

Lingayen Dagupan Archbishop Socrates Villegas said Holy Week is about love, not rituals.

"Love makes us holy. Love, not rituals, is the spirit of Holy Week," he said.

In his Palm Sunday reflection, the prelate said Holy Week is made holy by the love that the Lord Jesus offered.

"Scourges and crowning with thorns do not make us holy. Carrying the heavy cross and being nailed to it does not sanctify," said Villegas.

"Rituals mean nothing unless offered with love. It is when pain is penetrated by love; when we allow love to prevail over our distress; when death is embraced with love for others—that is what truly sanctifies," he added.

"Pain does not make us holy; love does. Courage is amazing but only by love are sins forgiven. Only love can redeem," Villegas said.

Archdiocese of Manila Apostolic Administrator Bishop Broderick Pabillo said while the Christian faith in the Philippines has been wrapped in many traditional practices, these are but external manifestations of the faith.

"This is a great help for many to experience the faith in concrete ways, but there is also the danger that we identify our religion only with these practices. Indeed, if we are not careful, the external practices can hide the deep meaning of our Christian faith," he said.

With the virus, Pabillo said the faithful are challenged this year to live this most Holy Week without the traditional external trappings.

"There is still the Holy Week but we celebrate it differently, and hopefully, more deeply," he said.

Public Masses are currently suspended to prevent the spread of COVID-19.

Priests say Mass in private and this is being made available to the faithful via the traditional media or live streaming in social media.