Holy Week abstinence: Shun cigarettes

If there was one vice that should be sacrificed this Holy Week, it should be smoking, according to antismoking advocates.

The group, New Vois Association of the Philippines (NVAP), said nicotine addicts could stay away from cigarettes or e-cigarettes (e-cigs) as a form of abstinence on Holy Thursday and Good Friday.

Abstinence, said NVAP president Emer Rojas, was not only about not eating meat or fasting.

Appeal to youth

“Denying ourselves the cigarette sticks we usually cannot live without is one good way to practice abstinence, which does not refer only to consumption of meat products,” Rojas said.

The group, Sigaw ng Kabataan Coalition (SKC), chimed in, asking youths who use e-cigs to shun the vice and instead stay “clean” for the Holy Week.

“We hope our youth will just choose to focus on the message of the Holy Week instead of picking up their e-cig devices and puffing them,” said Ellirie Aviles, SKC president.

The Catholic Church encourages abstinence during Holy Week.