29 March 202421:22
The Pontiff followed the rite from Casa Santa Marta “to preserve his health” in view of his upcoming commitments, over 25 thousand faithful at the Colosseum
Ansa
At least 25 thousand pilgrims and Romans attended the Colosseum Way of the Cross which concluded the Good Friday rites. An appointment which, however, at the last moment, saw theabsence of Pope Francis who preferred to follow the re-enactment of the Via Dolorosa from Casa Santa Marta in the Vatican to preserve health for the next, demanding events of Holy Week, starting with the vigil on Saturday night in the Vatican Basilica. The Pope’s vicar in Rome, Cardinal Angelo De Donatis, attended the Via Crucis at the Colosseum.
Photogallery – The Via Crucis at the Colosseum without Pope Francis
“To preserve his health in view of tomorrow’s Vigil and the Holy Mass on Easter Sunday, this evening Pope Francis will follow the Via Crucis at the Colosseum from Casa Santa Marta” announced a note from the Holy See Press Office. It is the second time that Pope Francis skips the Via Crucis on Good Friday at the Colosseum. Even last year, in fact, the Holy Father did not participate in the rite due to the “intense cold” of those days in Rome: the doctors, in fact, had advised him to be a little cautious after the acute bronchitis which had forced him to a hospitalization at Gemelli.
The cross carried by migrants, disabled people and young people Both religious and lay people carry the cross during the traditional Via Crucis at the Colosseum. For consecrated people, the cross is carried from one station to another, by some cloistered nuns and a hermit, by some priests who administer the sacrament of Confession in some Roman Basilicas, by some parish priests of the Diocese of Rome and by consecrated women. A presence, that of those who will take turns carrying the cross, made up of some residents in a family home, people welcomed into a recovery and social assistance community, people with disabilities and some women involved in healthcare pastoral care. Among the other presences, those of a group of migrants, some young people and workers from Caritas of Rome. Instead, it will be the young university students who will accompany the movements of the cross inside the Flavian Amphitheater with lit torches.
Fourteen stations, from the madness of war to the greatness of women Fourteen stations in which Pope Francis, in dialogue with Jesus, addresses the theme of the “madness of war”. That of feminicides – with women suffering “outrages and violence” – and that of haters, who use “a keyboard to insult and publish sentences”. But our thoughts also go to the “unborn children” and the “abandoned” ones, without forgetting the “too many discarded elderly people”. The Pope, for the first time in his pontificate, decided to write the meditations for the Via Crucis himself. In the meditations, entitled “Praying with Jesus on the way to the cross”, when Jesus is condemned to death, in
first stationthe text written by Bergoglio includes a reflection: “Jesus, I realize that I know you little because I don’t know your silence enough; because in the frenzy of running and doing, absorbed by things, taken by the fear of not staying afloat or by the I long to put myself at the center, I can’t find the time to stop and stay with you”.
When Jesus is loaded onto the Cross, in the
second station, Bergoglio refers to all the crosses that each of us carries every day: “an illness, an accident, the death of a loved one, an emotional disappointment, a lost child, a job that is missing, an internal wound that does not heal, the failure of a project, yet another wait gone in vain.” Crosses that Jesus does not hesitate to carry “on his shoulders” to “take the burden off us”. At the
third stationwhen Jesus falls for the first time, the Pontiff underlines: “I will fall in life, but with love I will be able to get up and move forward, as you did, who are an expert in falls. Your life, in fact, has been a continuous fall towards us: from God to man, from man to servant, from servant to crucified, to the tomb; you fell to the ground like a seed that dies, you fell to raise us from the ground and take us to heaven”.
When Jesus meets his mother, at
fourth station, the Pope turns to Mary: “Stop my race, help me to remember: to cherish grace, to remember God’s forgiveness and wonders, to revive first love, to savor the wonders of providence, to cry with gratitude “. At the
fifth station, when Jesus is helped by the Cyrenean, the Pope speaks of the difficulty in “asking for a hand, for fear of giving the impression of not being up to it”. But Jesus teaches us to help others precisely “in the weaknesses of which they are ashamed”. With the
sixth stationwhen Jesus receives comfort from Veronica, the Pope underlines how “many follow the barbaric spectacle” of Jesus’ execution: “It also happens today, Lord” and “a macabre procession is not even needed: a keyboard is enough to insult and publish sentences” .
At the
seventh station, with Jesus falling again under the weight of the cross, Bergoglio reflects: “I understand it when I feel crushed by things, targeted by life and misunderstood by others; when I feel the excessive and unnerving weight of responsibility and work, when I am compressed in gripped by anxiety, assailed by melancholy, while a suffocating thought repeats to me: you’re not getting out of it, this time you’re not getting up”. But Jesus “fell under the weight of the cross several times to be close to me when I fall”. When Jesus meets the women of Jerusalem,
eighth station, the Pontiff takes the opportunity to underline “the greatness of women”, who “even today are discarded, suffering outrage and violence”. Arrived at
ninth station, with Jesus stripped of his clothes, the Pope speaks to Jesus about the suffering, “because you are there, in those who are stripped of dignity, in the Christs humiliated by arrogance and injustice, by unfair gains made on the skin of others in indifference general”. Forgiveness is the theme of
tenth station, with Jesus nailed to the cross: “Jesus, may I pray not only for me and my loved ones, but for those who do not love me and hurt me”. L’
eleventh station, when Jesus cries out his abandonment – the Holy Father turns his thoughts to the “unborn children” and “the abandoned ones” and to the “many young people, waiting for someone to hear their cry of pain”, the “too many discarded elderly people” , the “inmates” and “those who are alone”. And the “most exploited and forgotten peoples”.
When Jesus dies giving himself up to the Father and giving paradise to the good thief, to
twelfth station, the Pontiff underlines how prayer “can change history”. Where the cross “emblem of torture” becomes “icon of love”. At the
thirteenth station, with Jesus being taken down from the cross in Mary’s arms, the Pope turns to the Mother: “Mary, we are poor in ‘yes’ and rich in ‘ifs’: if I had had better parents, if I had been better understood and loved , if my career had gone better, if there wasn’t that problem, if only I didn’t suffer anymore, if God listened to me’ Perpetually asking ourselves the why of things, we struggle to live the present with love”. Finally, in the
fourteenth stationthe Pope addresses Joseph of Arimathea, in whose tomb the body of Jesus is placed: “Your tomb which – unique in history – will be a source of life, was new, just dug into the rock. And what do I give new to Jesus this Easter? A little time to be with Him? A little love for others? My fears and my buried miseries, which Christ awaits, offer him as you did with the tomb? Will it really be Easter? if I give something of mine to Him who gave life for me: because it is by giving that we receive; because life is found when it is lost and is possessed when it is given.”
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