PAPAL BLESSING. Pope Benedict XVI delivers his blessing at the end of the Via Crucis (Way of Cross) procession on Good Friday in Rome, Friday, April 6, 2012. The evening Via Crucis procession at the ancient amphitheater is a Rome tradition that draws a large crowd of faithful, including many of the pilgrims who flock to the Italian capital for Holy Week ceremonies before Easter Sunday. AP
ROME—Pope Benedict XVI encouraged those threatened by unemployment and other economic woes to draw courage and strength from the suffering of the crucified Jesus Christ as the German Pontiff presided over Good Friday’s Way of the Cross procession at the ancient Colosseum.
Benedict, who turns 85 on April 16, didn’t carry the cross during the hour-long procession itself. Instead, he listened intently to meditations on suffering that he asked an elderly Italian couple to compose for the traditional ceremony.
Then, as the final reflection was read aloud, the Pontiff was handed the slender, lightweight wooden cross, which he held steadily for a few minutes.
Thousands of pilgrims clutching candles and prayer books jammed the boulevard outside the Colosseum and the ancient Roman Forum to pray with the Pope on a mild, cloudy night at the traditional Via Crucis procession.
A few held palms or olive branches they had saved from Palm Sunday, which opened the Holy Week ceremonies of the Roman Catholic Church.
Families from Italy, Ireland, Burkina Faso and Peru took turns carrying a cross around the ancient site associated with early Christian martyrs in one of the main services before Easter, the climax of the Christian year.
Brief homily
“The experience of suffering and of the cross touches all mankind. It touches the family, too,” the Pope said in a brief homily at the end of the procession, which he observed from an elevated landing.
“The situation of many families is made worse by the threat of unemployment and other negative effects of the economic crisis,” he added.
“At times of trouble, when our families have to face pain and adversity, let us look to Christ’s cross. There we can find the courage and the strength to press on,” he advised families.
Strength from God, Benedict sought to assure the faithful, will help families “to make sacrifices and to overcome every obstacle.”
14 meditations
The economic crisis has led to increasing poverty and hardship in Europe, and countries such as Greece and Italy have seen in recent weeks a wave of suicides linked to financial woes such as unemployment and companies going bankrupt.
Wearing red robes to symbolize the blood shed by Jesus, the Pontiff listened to 14 meditations composed by Danilo and Anna Maria Zanzucchi, an elderly couple who founded a Christian movement that emphasizes unity and commitment within the family.
The couple, who have been married for almost 60 years, lamented the breakdown of families within their texts for the Stations of the Cross that marked the suffering Jesus endured leading up to his death.
“How frequently do we fall in our families! How many separations, how many betrayals! And divorces, abortions, desertions!” the couple said in one of their meditations.
The torch-lit procession was the Pope’s second event on Good Friday, the most solemn day in the Christian calendar.
Earlier at St. Peter’s Basilica, he knelt in prayer as he presided over a service in which he heard the papal household’s preacher deliver a homily.
On Thursday, Benedict restated the Roman Catholic Church’s ban on women priests and warned that he would not tolerate disobedience by clerics on fundamental teachings.
‘Urbi et Orbi’
The Pope, who looked tired during services on Good Friday, returned last week from a gruelling trip to Mexico and Cuba.
His brother, Rev. Georg Ratzinger, said during an interview with the German Catholic news agency KNA on Wednesday that he thought the Pope would cut back his foreign voyages because travel increasingly wore him out.
After his Colosseum appearance, Benedict will say Mass at St. Peter’s Basilica on the eve of Christianity’s most joyous day that commemorates Christ’s resurrection from the dead.
Finally, at noon on Easter Sunday, the Pope will deliver an “Urbi et Orbi” (To the city and the world) blessing and message at St. Peter’s Square. With a report from Reuters
First posted 10:50 am | Saturday, April 7th, 2012