Rome's ancient Colosseum hosts Way of the Cross with pope's theme of renewal

Thousands of faithful gather outside Rome’s illuminated Colosseum for the traditional Good Friday Way of the Cross ceremony on April 18, 2025, where Cardinal Reina led the procession featuring Pope Francis’s meditations on divine mercy and human fragility. / Vatican Media / Screenshot

CNA Newsroom, Apr 18, 2025 / 18:05 pm (CNA).

Against the ancient backdrop of Rome’s Colosseum, thousands gathered Friday evening for the solemn Via Crucis procession, where Cardinal Baldassare Reina carried the cross on behalf of Pope Francis, who remains in recovery from pneumonia but whose spiritual presence was palpably felt through his powerful meditations.

The 88-year-old pontiff, unable to attend the Good Friday ceremony in person for the third consecutive year due to ongoing recovery from bilateral pneumonia, prepared deeply reflective texts that accompanied the fourteen stations. Though absent physically, his words provided a particular presence as participants proceeded through the traditional commemoration of Christ’s passion.

In his meditations, Pope Francis contrasted “God’s economy, which does not kill, discard or crush” with today’s world built on “calculation and algorithms, cold logic and implacable interests.” This divine economy, he noted, “is lowly, faithful to the earth” and follows “the way of the Beatitudes” that “does not crush, but cultivates, repairs and protects.”

The liturgical ceremony began at 9:15 p.m. local time with Cardinal Reina, the pope’s vicar general for the diocese of Rome, carrying the cross for the first station. Various groups representing different aspects of the Church and society took turns bearing the wooden cross through subsequent stations, including youth, Caritas volunteers, families, people with disabilities, migrants, healthcare workers, religious, educators, and Jubilee volunteers.

Pope Francis described the Way of the Cross as “the prayer of people on the move” that “disrupts our usual routine” to lead from “weariness to joy.” His meditations stressed how Christ’s path through suffering represents “a change of course and a change of pace — a conversion that restores joy and brings us home.”

“The road to Calvary passes through the streets we tread each day,” the pope wrote in his introduction.

“Usually, Lord, we are walking in the other direction, and so it may just happen that we encounter you, catch sight of your face, meet your gaze.”

Several meditations focused on human fragility and God’s response to it. At the seventh station, where Jesus falls for the second time, the pope reflected, “Fall and get up again; fall and get up again. That is how you taught us, Jesus, to approach the adventure of human life.” He added that humans “are not mass-produced but handcrafted: we are unique treasures, a blend of grace and responsibility.”

When addressing Jesus being stripped of his garments in the tenth station, Francis noted, “You are the Bridegroom who lets himself be taken and touched, who turns everything to good… You know each of us singly, so as to save us together: all of us, each and every one.”

The ceremony concluded with Saint Francis’s prayer: “Most High and glorious God, cast your light into the darkness of my heart. Grant me right faith, firm hope, perfect charity, and profound humility.”