For the third consecutive year, Pope Francis could not participate in the Crucis via this Good Friday at the Roman Coliseum. The Holy Father, 88, continues to recover from the bilateral pneumonia that forced him to remain admitted for 38 days at the Gemelli Polyclinic Hospital in Rome, and the temperatures of the Roman night are not the most suitable for a patient in his situation.
As he did last year, the Pontiff prepared the texts of the meditations that accompanied the fourteen stations that recall the path of Jesus to the Calvary. In this way, despite his physical impediment, he wanted to be present among the hundreds of faithful who followed the Crucis route from the Roman amphitheater.
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The liturgical act, one of the most important of Holy Week 2025, began at 21:15 (local time) and was broadcast live, allowing faithful from all over the world to join the reflections prepared by Pope Francis, in which he proposed to embrace “the economy of God, who does not kill, does not rule out, does not crush. He is humble, faithful to earth.”
The Pontiff defined the Crucis via as “the prayer of those who move”, a path that interrupts our routines to lead us “from fatigue towards joy.” Thus, he invited the faithful to follow the footsteps of Jesus outside the city, as a symbol of “our exodus towards a new land.”
The Holy Father also criticized the “tears of circumstance” in front of human tragedies, as well as the “divisions within the Church.”
He also stressed that mercy is the foundation of salvation, proposing the path of the cross as a form of conversion. Finally, he cited the words of San Francisco to invoke “the gift of the conversion of the heart.”
The meditations of the Holy Father were read while the 14 stations were traveled, which mark the path followed by Jesus carrying his cross to Mount Calvary.
The Vicar General of the Pope for the Diocese of Rome, Cardinal Baldassare Reina, took the cross in the first and last station, while in the others young people, volunteers from Caritas, families, people with disabilities, immigrants, religious, consecrated widows, confessors, educators, health personnel and volunteers of the jubilee participated.
Victoria Cardiel
Victoria Cardiel is a journalist specialized in social and religious information issues. Since 2013, he has covered all the news of the Vatican for various media, such as the Spanish news agency Europa Press, or the weekly of the Archdiocese of Madrid, Alfa and Omega.