After missing the Via Crucis at the Colosseum, Pope Francis led the Easter vigil in the Vatican

He Pope francesco presided this Saturday the Easter Vigil in St. Peter’s Basilica, after having renounced the Via Crucis at the Colosseum to take care of his health. In this Saturday’s homily he asked “for the desperation to go away” for “the people destroyed by evil and affected by injustice”.

In this celebration lasting more than two hours, which recalls the wait for the resurrection of Jesus, the Pope He participated in all the rites and read with a beautiful voiceafter this Friday he decided at the last moment not to go to the Colosseum for the traditional Via Crucis in Rome.

In his homily he referred to “the fact that sometimes we feel that a tombstone has been placed heavily at the entrance to our heart, suffocating life, extinguishing trust, closing us in the tomb of fears and bitterness”.

The Supreme Pontiff defined them as “stumbling blocks of death” and stated that “they are all the experiences and situations that deprive us of the enthusiasm and strength to move forward”.

And among these he cited «the death of our loved ones, which leaves gaps in us that are impossible to fill; the failures”, the walls of selfishness and indifferencewho reject the commitment to build more just and dignified cities and societies for man” and “all the longings for peace shattered by the cruelty of hatred and the ferocity of war”.

Francis then assured that “Jesus is our Easter, the One who makes us pass from darkness to light, who unites with us forever and saves us from the abyss of sin and death, drawing us towards the luminous impetus of forgiveness”. life.”

The Pope then turned to “peoples destroyed by evil and affected by injustice, landless people, martyr people” like that chases away “the singers of despair in this night”.

The ceremony, one of the longest in the tradition and full of symbolism, began with the blessing of the fire in the atrium of the basilica and the lighting of the Easter candle. The Pope marked the candle with the inscription of the first and last letters of the Greek alphabet – alpha and omega – symbolizing that God is the beginning and the end in a totally dark basilica.

Subsequently, the traditional procession took place with the entrance of the concelebrants in total silence and darkness and with only the candles lit to represent the absence of light after the death of Jesus Christ.

Only after the deacon had pronounced the phrase ‘Lumen Christi’ (The Light of Christ) three times did the lights of the basilica come on and the ceremony began. Mass in front of 6,000 faithful.

This long ceremony follows the tradition of the early years of the Church, that of the catechumens, the adults who aspired to convert to Christianity and, therefore, the blessing of the water was also celebrated, and Francis baptized eight adults of different nationalities: four Italians , two Koreans, one Japanese and one Albanian.

During this Vatican Holy Week it has not been possible to enjoy the presence behind the altar of the imposing canopy of St. Peter’s by Gian Lorenzo Bernini, as it remains covered as a restoration is underway in view of next year’s Jubilee.

On Friday evening the Pope was due to preside over the Via Crucis at the Colosseum in Rome. Vatican staff even placed their personal chair there.

However, a few minutes after it began, the Vatican announced that Francis would not participate in that ceremony and would follow it from Santa Marta. They said the decision was to “safeguard his health” and said he will attend the vigil this Saturday and the Mass of the Resurrection on Easter Sunday.

In recent days Francisco had been suffering from respiratory problems.