After two years of interruption due to the Covid-19 pandemic, the traditional Stations of the Cross at the Colosseum brought together around 10,000 pilgrims of different nationalities on this Good Friday. Despite the controversies of recent days over Pope Francis’ decision to have a Ukrainian and a Russian carry the cross at the thirteenth station, the Via Crucis went smoothly.
From our correspondent in Rome, Anne Le Nir
In the night lit by a myriad of candles, the faithful massed near the Colosseum and Palatine Hill where the Pope presided over the Stations of the Cross. At the thirteenth station, which evokes the death of Christ, Irina and Albina, two friends, nurses in a Roman hospital, one Russian and the other Ukrainian, together carried the wooden cross, during the reading of the meditation text .
But to the amazement of the Italian media, the text originally planned, which was to address the war in Ukraine, was replaced by this sober: ” In the face of death silence speaks louder than words It must be said that the presence of the two young women has outraged high Ukrainian personalities, including the head of the Greek Catholic Church of Ukraine, Monsignor Sviatoslav Shevchuk, according to whom ” the initiative did not take into account the context of Russia’s military aggression against Ukraine “.
In his concluding prayer, the Pope feverishly renewed his appeals for peace: Jesus takes us by the hand like a father and allows adversaries to shake hands so that they reach mutual forgiveness “.
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