{"id":53939,"date":"2025-04-19T06:34:16","date_gmt":"2025-04-19T06:34:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/mixed-reactions-as-ndayishimiye-carries-the-cross-on-good-friday\/"},"modified":"2025-04-19T06:34:06","modified_gmt":"2025-04-19T06:34:06","slug":"mixed-reactions-as-ndayishimiye-carries-the-cross-on-good-friday","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/mixed-reactions-as-ndayishimiye-carries-the-cross-on-good-friday\/","title":{"rendered":"Mixed reactions as Ndayishimiye \u201ccarries the cross\u201d on Good Friday"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The president carried a wooden cross during the procession, accompanied by his family, in an attempt to practice the symbolic gesture involving retracing Jesus&#8217; final steps before his crucifixion and praying or meditating at each of the 14 designated stations.<\/p>\n<p>The Burundian presidency later stated that Ndayishimiye participated in the \u201cstations of the cross,\u201d joining in the suffering of Jesus. His public involvement in the religious ceremony was seen by some as a sign of humility and solidarity with the nation\u2019s Christian community.<\/p>\n<p>However, the gesture also sparked mixed online reactions. While some praised the president\u2019s devotion, others criticized the move as tone-deaf in the face of ongoing national challenges.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHe should be solving the problems Burundians are facing, at the very least helping secure fuel, but here he is lifting wooden crosses made from Grevillea trees,\u201d read one of comments by a social media user.<\/p>\n<p>The event, which was part of global Good Friday observances, has since fueled a broader conversation in Burundi about leadership, faith, and national priorities.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"spip-document spip-document-85949 aligncenter\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/jpg\/1-3831-d9fd0.jpg\" alt=\"President \u00c9variste Ndayishimiye of Burundi participated in the \u201cstations of the cross\u201d a Christian tradition reflecting on the suffering of Jesus Christ.\" \/><\/figure>\n<figure class=\"spip-document spip-document-85948 aligncenter\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/jpg\/4-2481-d8da2.jpg\" alt=\" President \u00c9variste Ndayishimiye was in the company of his family.\" \/><\/figure>\n<figure class=\"spip-document spip-document-85950 aligncenter\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/jpg\/2-3577-3e6d3.jpg\" alt=\"\" \/><\/figure>\n<figure class=\"spip-document spip-document-85951 aligncenter\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/jpg\/3-3266-ba0e8.jpg\" alt=\"\" \/><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>On April 18, 2025, President \u00c9variste Ndayishimiye of Burundi joined the Catholic faithful in commemorating Good Friday by participating in the \u201cstations of the cross\u201d a Christian tradition reflecting on the suffering of Jesus Christ. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":135,"featured_media":2000085947,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[75],"byline":[170],"hashtag":[],"class_list":["post-53939","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-homenews","byline-igihe"],"bylines":[{"id":170,"name":"IGIHE","slug":"igihe","description":"","image":{"id":0,"url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/?s=96&d=mm&f=y&r=g","alt":"Default avatar","title":"Default avatar","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","sizes":[]},"user_id":8}],"contributors":[{"id":170,"name":"IGIHE","slug":"igihe","description":"","image":{"id":0,"url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/?s=96&d=mm&f=y&r=g","alt":"Default avatar","title":"Default avatar","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","sizes":[]},"user_id":8}],"featured_image":{"id":2000085947,"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/profile-573.jpg","alt":"","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","width":0,"height":0,"sizes":{"thumbnail":{"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/profile-573.jpg","width":1,"height":1},"medium":{"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/profile-573.jpg","width":1,"height":1},"medium_large":{"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/profile-573.jpg","width":1,"height":1},"large":{"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/profile-573.jpg","width":1,"height":1},"full":{"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/profile-573.jpg","width":0,"height":0}}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/53939","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/135"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=53939"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/53939\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2000085947"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=53939"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=53939"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=53939"},{"taxonomy":"byline","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/byline?post=53939"},{"taxonomy":"hashtag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/hashtag?post=53939"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}