Rome - Yesterday evening, around 30,000 believers gathered at the Roman Colosseum to pray the traditional Way of the Cross together with Pope Leo XIV. The amphitheater, illuminated by a large cross, formed the backdrop for a solemn ceremony that was entirely dedicated to the suffering of current global conflicts. For over an hour, the head of the church personally carried the wooden cross through all 14 stations to the Palatine. In doing so, he symbolically took upon himself the wounds of a world torn apart by war as well as the suffering of weeping mothers and all those who are deprived of their dignity.
Urgent appeals for peace and meditations
The texts for the meditations were penned by Father Francesco Patton, the former Custos of the Holy Land. The message was unmistakable: those who provoke wars will have to answer to God. „Every authority will have to answer to God for the way in which it exercises the power given to it,“ the texts said. This includes the power to start or end wars.
The Pope had already intervened diplomatically in the run-up to the event. On Friday, he held a telephone conversation with Israeli President Isaac Herzog to call for an end to the conflict. There was also a conversation with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky. Selensky invited the Pope to Kiev and reported on intensive Russian attacks that had destroyed any hope of an Easter ceasefire.
Sign of humility in St. Peter's Basilica
Before the Pope was received by Rome's mayor Roberto Gualtieri at the Colosseum in the evening, he presided over the Good Friday liturgy in St. Peter's Basilica on Friday afternoon. At the beginning of the celebration, Pope Leo XIV humbly prostrated himself on the floor in front of the altar. During the subsequent veneration of the cross, he approached the crucifix barefoot and kissed it. The sermon was given by the preacher of the Papal Household, Father Roberto Pasolini. He lamented the fact that today God's name is even invoked to justify violence and deadly decisions.
This Saturday, a day of silence, the Vatican is preparing for the highest feast of Christianity. In the evening, Pope Leo XIV will preside over his first Easter Vigil in St. Peter's Basilica.
