Pope Francis has resigned from presiding over the traditional Way of the Cross on Good Friday at the Colosseum in Rome to take care of his health before the rest of the Holy Week rites, the Holy See confirmed today in a statement.
"To preserve health before tomorrow's vigil and the Holy Mass on Easter Sunday, this afternoon Pope Francis will follow the Via Crucis of the Colosseum from Casa Santa Marta," the Vatican said in a brief statement minutes before the start of the rite. .
Francis, 87, has suffered some breathing problems in recent times but yesterday he presided, apparently without problems, at the Holy Thursday mass in a women's prison in Rome and today at the ceremony of the passion of Christ in St. Peter's Basilica. .
The pope's decision was last minute given that the chair in which he was to follow the Stations of the Cross was placed on the Palatine Hill, in front of the Colosseum, where this ceremony takes place because it is the symbol of the persecution of the first Christians.
This was also going to be Bergoglio's most personal via crucis since he had written in his own handwriting for the first time the "meditations", the texts that are read along the fourteen stations of the cross to remember the path to death. of Jesus of Nazareth.
In his meditations, Francis dialogues with Jesus Christ in a world in which "the madness of war", "violence against women" reigns and in which "a keyboard is enough to write sentences", among other evils and demands.
Thus, he maintains that the "infamy and contempt" that Jesus suffered is something that happens today when "a keyboard is enough to insult and publish sentences."
He also reflects on "when we fall back into our mistakes and sins when we are scandalized by others and then realize that we are no different."
In the eighth station when 'Jesus meets the women of Jerusalem', the pope asks "to recognize the greatness of women, those who were faithful to you at Easter and did not abandon you, those who even today continue to be discarded, suffering insults and violence".
And at this moment, the pope also reflects on "if we cry before the madness of war, before the faces of children who no longer know how to smile, before their mothers who see them malnourished and hungry without even having more tears to shed."
This afternoon the Vatican had announced, always hours before the Stations of the Cross, those in charge of carrying the Cross in the Colosseum: some cloistered nuns and a hermit, patients from a residence, a family, the disabled, young people, priests, catechists, priests, Caritas workers and a group of immigrants, among others.
Until this unforeseen event, Francis has participated normally in the rest of the rites of Roman Holy Week and even last Wednesday he walked into the general audience with the faithful, despite the fact that he usually does so in the wheelchair he uses due to his disabilities. known mobility problems.
Likewise, although in recent weeks he has given up reading his speeches and homilies in public, as he is tired due to the after-effects of a recent flu, as he explained, during this Holy Week he has read them without any major problem.
At the Chrism Mass on Holy Thursday, which opens the Easter Triduum, Francis read a long homily, while at the Mass of the Last Supper, in a women's prison in Rome, he did not read his homily but rather improvised a short speech, before washing the feet of twelve inmates from their wheelchair.
