Burger King withdraws offensive Holy Week ads

The fast-food chain apologised to anyone who felt offended by the advertisements, Catholic News Agency reports. "Our intention has never been to offend anyone, and the immediate withdrawal of the campaign has already been requested", Burger King tweeted on Easter Sunday.

For example, one of the controversial billboards read: "Take all of you and eat of it. Which doesn't have meat. 100% vegetarian." Thereby, it referred to the words of Jesus at the Lord's Supper to His disciples.

Thousands of Catholics, several priests and a bishop protested against the advertisements. The protest went viral on social media, and a petition was launched. "They make fun of the Eucharist and the death of Christ during the most sacred time for Christians", the petition states. "It is time to respond with a boycott of Burger King."

On April 18, already more than 22,000 people had signed the petition.

Christian parades are back after the Covid pandemic

Some people in Spain believed that public displays of faith during Holy Week would disappear after the Covid-19 pandemic. Because of the restrictions, processions, for example, could not take place. Father Juan Manuel Góngora, a priest of the Diocese of Almería in Spain, tweeted that the public displays of faith would restart and "continue to the end of time." That is reported by Catholic News Agency.

Góngora did so in response to the tweet of a journalist, Antonio Papell, who lamented that the country had become "dark and gloomy of rosaries and processions." Papell wrote on Good Friday that "whoever may have thought that after two years of hiatus there could have been a decline in religious parades in the street has been wrong." The priest then responded with a piece of advice: "Get used to the idea."

Also, from other Twitter users, Papell's posts received much criticism. One of the reactions said: "What makes Spain seem gloomy, dark and anachronistic are your tweets full of resentment. Be of good cheer; Sunday is Easter."