The Roman Colosseum, this Friday, during the massive celebration of Vìa Crucis. Photo: REUTERS
Families are the protagonists of its Via Crucis Good Friday at the Colosseum in Rome, after a two -year suspension of the ceremony due to pandemic.
More than 10,000 people gathered outside the Flavian Amphitheater, which Pope Benedict XIV declared in 1749 the House of All Saints and ordered the construction of the Via Crucis around the arena “soaked in the blood of Christian martyrs.”
The Argentine Pope followed the ceremony sitting in a box on Palatine Hill and was seen continuing to pray as family groups passed through fourteen Calvary stations.
The symptoms of the pain he was suffering from due to his swelling in his right knee, which prevented him this Friday, during a ceremony in the Basilica of San Pedro, from lying on the ground and praying with open hands did not escape him. as usual. .
pray for peace
The culminating moment is experienced with great collective participation, when sociable nurse Irina and Albina, Ukrainian and Russian, held a cross in their hands together and they walked to the 13th station commemorating the expulsion of Jesus ’body from the cross, in front of his mother, the Virgin Mary.
Nurses Irina, from Ukraine, and Albina, from Russia, on Via Crucis this Friday. Photo: AFP
Before both began the Way of the Cross (Via Crucis), through loudspeakers delivering testimonies, everyone is asked to pray “for world peace”.
A faint silence that lasted more than a minute, responded to the Pope who covered his face with his hand as he prayed.
Irina and Albina were overjoyed. The commentary attributed to his two families begins with the concluding words of Christ. “Lord, why have you forsaken us?” What they are referring to are the Ukrainian and Russian citizens, who are now punished by the war.
“Why did you leave us? death around. Life seems to be losing value. Everything changes in seconds. The existence, the days. Suddenly everything lost its value. Where are you Lord? Where are you hiding? Because of all this? What sin have we committed? Why did you leave us? Why have you forsaken our people? Why did you divide our family like this? Why do we no longer feel like dreaming and living? “They read.
“Lord, where are you? We wake up in the morning and we are happy for a few seconds, but we immediately remember how hard it is to reconcile, Lord. Speak in the silence of death and division, teach us to make peace, to be brothers, to rebuild what is desired to be destroyed by bombs? ”
Pope Francis led the celebration of Good Friday at St. Peter’s Basilica in the Vatican. Photo: EFE
The moving text was followed by the deep silence of the people. The sinking of Russia’s flagship in the Black Sea and entering the decisive, horrible second phase of the Russian offensive in the east and south of Ukraine, they are fueling the growing tension as maneuvers and attacks spread and the number of victims increases.
“This is Pope Francis’ most dramatic Easter, ”commented Vatican expert Marco Politi. What he was referring to were the controversies sparked by Jorge Bergoglio’s decision to pursue his decision to accept that a Ukrainian and a Russian, friendly nurse who are equally suffering, will also suffer the tragedy that continues to worsen on behalf of their citizens.
Many high -ranking Ukrainian prelates, Catholics of the Greek rite, the Ukrainian ambassador to the Vatican and even the apostolic nuncio to that country, are critical of the Pope. Pope Bergoglio’s ambassador expressed his difference, explaining that he had not organized the Via Crucis here in this way.
The war “that threatens the whole world”, according to Francis, has colored the climate experienced this Friday night at the Coliseum of tension and grief. Many Ukrainians went to the ceremony. They did not criticize the Pope, although some clarified: “We are not equal, we are victims, not aggressors.”
Rome, correspondent
CB
Source: Clarin