The celebration of the Via Crucis at the Colosseum is underway. The Pope is not present, due to the cold, and follows her from Casa Santa Marta but, unlike what happened in 2005 with John Paul II, he is not connected by video. Presiding over the celebration, in place of Pope Francis, is the Cardinal Vicar of Rome Angelo De Donatis.
THE LIVE OF THE VIA CRUCIS
Pope Francis instead arrived, in a wheelchair, in the Vatican basilica for the celebration of the Passion of the Lord. As had already happened last year, the Pontiff did not prostrate himself on the ground, a gesture expected at the beginning of this celebration and which Pope Francis was able to do until 2021. Knee pain and the Pope’s general health conditions led in recent times to changes in the celebrations, including this one on Good Friday, in which traditionally the Popes entered the basilica without shoes, with their heads uncovered and stretched out on the ground as a sign of penance.
Via Crucis, the faithful at the Colosseum: ‘Let us pray for peace and hospitality’
The Ukrainian ambassador to the Holy See, Andrii Yurash, criticizes the texts of the Via Crucis at the Colosseum, in which the Pope will participate from Santa Marta. Speaking of the Russian boy, who in tonight’s meditations will say that he lost his brother in the war and that he no longer knows anything about his father and grandfather called to the front, Yurash comments: “Forget to say that his relatives went to Ukraine to kill not only the father of the Ukrainian boy but his whole family, and not vice versa”. Yurash adds that he learned about the Stations of the Cross shared by a Ukrainian boy and a Russian boy from the media.
A young Ukrainian and a young Russian may be praying together tonight, at Way of the cross of the Pope. It should happen at the tenth station (“Jesus is stripped of his clothes”). “Voices of peace from the young people of Ukraine and Russia” is the title of the meditation in which the two boys are supposed to tell their experience. “Jesus, please, let there be peace in the whole world and let us all be brothers,” the young people will say. The first testimony, again according to what transpires, will come from the Holy Land.
Source: Ansa
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