Pope Francis leads Good Friday
Via Crucis at St Peter’s Basilica
On Good Friday, Pope Francis presides at the Way of the
Cross, which this year takes place in Piazza San Pietro.
By Vatican News
Pope Francis led the traditional Via
Crucis in a near-empty Saint Peter’s Square on the evening of
Good Friday.
A stark contrast
It marked a stark departure from the usual ceremony, which
normally takes place at the Colosseum amid throngs of people as the Church
remembers the final moments of the Passion, Death, and Burial of our Lord Jesus
Christ. This year, measures taken to halt the spread of the novel coronavirus,
Covid-19, made it necessary to hold the service without the physical presence
of the faithful.
Meditations from Prison
For 2020, the meditations for the fourteen “Stations” along
the Way of the Cross were prepared by the chaplaincy of the Due
Palazzi House of Detention in the northern Italian city of Padua. Five
prisoners, the family of a murder victim, the daughter of a man given a life
sentence, the mother of another prisoner, a guard, and a priest who was
convicted of a crime but eventually exonerated, were among those contributing
their reflections on the Passion of the Lord, and how it bears on their own
situations.
A path through the darkness
With the path marked out by burning torches on the ground,
the black Cross was carried around the obelisk at the centre of the Square,
before coming to the door of the Basilica. The Cross was escorted by members of
the Due Palazzi chaplaincy, and by members of the Health and Hygiene
Directorate of the Vatican City State.
The papal blessing
Arriving at the sagrada, or porch before the
façade, the Cross was given to Pope Francis for the fourteenth and final
Station.
Finally, at the conclusion of the ceremony, the Holy Father
gave his papal blessing to all those following the Via Crucis,
wherever they might be throughout the world.
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