Pope Leo XIV became the second Pope to carry the Cross for the entire Via Crucis on Good Friday at Rome’s Colosseum.
Joined by around 30,000 faithful and countless people across the world on social media, television, and radio, the Pope led the Way of the Cross through the candlelit ruins of the ancient Roman edifice, which witnessed the martyrdom of many early Christians.
Begun by the Emperor Vespasian and completed in 80 AD by the Emperor Titus, the largest ancient elliptical amphitheatre was eventually consecrated as a Catholic church.
Each year, the Pope and the faithful of Rome gather at the Colosseum to make the spiritual pilgrimage through the fourteen Stations of the Cross that recall Jesus’ death and burial.
Pope Leo XIV followed in the footsteps of Pope St. John Paul II, who carried the Cross for the entire Via Crucis from 1980 until 1994.
As Pope Leo carried the Cross, passages from the Gospel were read, along with brief excerpts from the writing of St. Francis and meditations written by Franciscan Fr. Francesco Patton, the former Custos of the Holy Land.
In his meditations, Fr. Patton lays out St. Francis’ example of how Christians can incarnate the theological virtues of faith, hope, and love in the real world.
He takes us along Jesus’ original path through the narrow streets of Jerusalem up to Golgotha for His crucifixion and burial.
“As in the time of Jesus,” he says, “we find ourselves walking through a chaotic, distracting and noisy environment, surrounded by people who share our faith in Him, but also by those who deride or insult Him.”
“The Way of the Cross is not intended for those who lead a pristinely pious or abstractly recollected life,” says Fr. Patton. “Instead, it is the exercise of one who knows that faith, hope and charity must be incarnated in the real world”.
At each station, Fr. Patton decries the human presumption of power and our temptation to abuse it.
We see our revulsion of the Cross revealed and our desire to seek glory instead of humility.
As Jesus falls three times, Fr. Patton reminds us that we must trust in Him to lift us up to the Father through the powerlessness of love.
He points out how authoritarian regimes, the indifferent media, and our own morbid curiousity strip others naked and thereby debase our own human dignity.
As Mary witnesses her Son’s death, Fr. Patton recalls that women have always stayed alongside those who suffer, and we learn that our tears teach us to remain human.
Yet, he notes, in His death, Jesus returns to the Father and brings us with Him, entrusting us with the mission to preach His destruction of eternal death.
At the conclusion of the Way of the Cross, Pope Leo XIV prayed that Christians may respond to St. Francis’ invitation to “live our lives as a journey of ever-deepening participation in the communion of love.”
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