The application of ash on Catholics’ foreheads to signal the beginning of Lent will resume this year, according to the Archdiocese of Manila.
In a circular dated February 14, the archdiocese announced that it would resume the practice on Ash Wednesday, February 22, which had been suspended because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
It also discouraged the “self-imposition of ashes.”
“We receive the ashes because the call to repentance is addressed to us by Christ through the Church, and it is also through the ministry of the Church that we are reconciled with God and each other,” the circular stated.
In February 2022, the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines (CBCP) allowed the Catholic faithful in the Philippines to receive ash crosses on their foreheads on Ash Wednesday. — Richa Noriega/VBL, GMA Integrated News
