20,000 people attended the liturgy of the Way of the Cross on Good Friday at the Colosseum in Rome. The sufferers of war, injustice, and poverty recounted their suffering in the Fourteen Ways of the Cross, and prayed for the grace of hope, conversion, dialogue, and forgiveness from God. The ceremony was presided over by Cardinal De Donatis, acting bishop of the Pope’s diocese of Rome. Pope Francis, who had just been discharged from the hospital, accompanied the believers spiritually in his residence to participate in the ceremony and prayed with them.
（Vatican News Network) war, injustice, poverty, violence and suffering intertwined with calls for peace, never more war, dialogue, hope, conversion, forgiveness, permeated the entire process of the liturgy of the Via Crucifixion in the Colosseum. Before it was completely dark, more than 20,000 people wearing winter clothes and holding candles had crowded the Imperial Avenue near the Colosseum. The service began with the “Lamb of God” sung by the Sistine Chapel Choir. The liturgy of the Via Crucifixion, commemorating the sufferings of Christ on Mount Golgotha, was presided over this year by Cardinal De Donatis, acting bishop of the Pope’s diocese of Rome. This is because Pope Francis was recently discharged from the hospital due to bronchitis, and it is not appropriate to hold open-air activities on a cold night. But even though he was in the residence, he accompanied the believers spiritually to participate in the liturgy and pray with them.
This year’s Via Crucifixion ceremony, like previous years, was broadcast to all parts of the world through television and radio stations. At the end of the ceremony, Cardinal De Donatis uttered 14 words of thanks to God sincerely, thanking God for not abandoning mankind when people sin, disobey and do evil. And the victims of these evil deeds are the authors of this year’s meditations on the Way of the Cross, and they testify through their own painful experiences. Some of these people of different races and religions witnessed the death of their children and parents in artillery fire, some suffered physical and mental violence, some lost their homes in the conflict, were forced to squeeze into small boats and lost their lives at sea, or wandered in Suffered in deserts, swamps, or were driven into camps to be tortured.
Those who shared these painful experiences were widows who survived, refugees, orphans, refugees who were tortured in Libya, and priests who were persecuted in the Balkan Peninsula war. Young people in both the invaded and the invaded countries cried out their bereavement; Joseph and Johnson, 16 and 14, said they were forced to live in crowded life in the camp. And then there are parents, young and old, priests, nuns, missionaries, who all suffer in common from their own tragic experiences and from seeing their loved ones wounded by mines, by guns, by hatred . As the author of the Fifth Station of the Cross said, “Experience it once and never forget it.”
All these make people eagerly yearn for peace, and the “cry for peace” is the theme chosen by Pope Francis. This is the voice of the Middle East, Africa, Asia, Ukraine…. The faithful in Southeast Asia tell their stories in meditation: “We are a people of peace, yet we are crushed by the cross of conflict….” These sufferers, while telling their own pain, also pray to God Give the grace of hope, dialogue, conversion, forgiveness.
Those who hold the cross in the liturgy of the Way of the Cross are also victims of war and violence, and they are a symbol of the suffering of war and violence all over the world. Among them were youths from Central America and refugees staying in Rome. During the Fourteenth Station of the Stations of the Cross, a young Russian man wearing a scarf in the colors of Ukraine walked forward holding a cross while meditating on the testimony of young people in Mariupol. The youngest among those present who carried the cross of pain was a baby girl who was only a few months old. She walked the Eleventh Way of the Cross with her mother in her arms and father holding the cross.
The entire process of the Way of the Cross is carried out silently in an atmosphere full of reverence. The ceremony ended after Cardinal De Donatis, who presided over the ceremony, recited the fourteen prayers of thanksgiving: “Thank you, Lord Jesus, for you have lighted our light in our dark night and reconciled our differences. Be brothers and sisters, children of the same Father.” All brothers and sisters, let us bear the cross of human suffering together with perseverance!
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