Vicar General of Pope Francis for the Diocese of Rome will open and close the via Crucis in the Colosseum

The Vicar General of Pope Francis for the Diocese of Rome, Cardinal Baldassare Reina, will be in charge of taking the cross in the first and in the last station of the 14 that travel from the death sentence of Jesus to his grave, during the Crucis via Crucis held in the Colosseum.

The Vatican press office reported in a statement about the people and organizations that will take the cross in the fourteen stations of the Crucis, one of the most followed ceremonies by the faithful of Rome. When celebrating in the Roman amphitheater, this celebration also recalls the persecution suffered by the first Christians by the Roman Empire.

The ceremony will begin with Cardinal Reina, who will take the cross at the first station, where Jesus is sentenced to death. In the second station, in which Jesus charges with the cross, it will be a group of young people who will take over. The third station, which recalls the first fall of Jesus, will be in charge of the Volunteers of Cáritas, the organization of the Catholic Church committed to support the most vulnerable.

In the fourth station, when Jesus meets his mother, a family will take the cross, representing the family nucleus. In the fifth, where Simon of Cyrene helps Jesus, the Unitalsi organization will do, dedicated to the accompaniment of sick and vulnerable people. The religious will be present at the sixth station, in which Veronica cleans the face of Jesus.

The second fall of Jesus, in the seventh station, will be accompanied by educators and staff of the educational field. In the eighth, when Jesus meets the women of Jerusalem, the cross will be transported by women from Ordo Viduarum (order of the widows), a vocation enshrined in the Catholic Church that allows widowed women to live this stage of life as a deep spiritual delivery, combining prayer, service and fidelity to Christ.

In the ninth station, marked by the third fall, several confessor priests will participate, representing the sacrament of reconciliation.

In the tenth station, when Jesus is stripped of his garments, the cross will be transported by people with disabilities. The jubilee volunteers will take over at the eleventh station, when Jesus is nailed to the cross. In the twelfth station, which commemorates the death of Jesus, it will be a group of immigrants in charge of carrying the cross, giving voice to those who live the pain of uprooting.

In the thirteenth station, when Jesus is lowered from the cross, it will be the health operators who carry it, in recognition of his delivery to the care of the sick. Finally, in the fourteenth station, when Jesus is placed in the Holy Sepulcher, Cardinal Reina will take the cross again and close the Crucis via.

Although Pope Francis is not expected to – who yesterday, despite his convalescent state, moved to the Roman prison of Regina Coeli to meet with 70 detainees – be present in the coliseum, the texts of the meditations that will be read and will accompany each of the fourteen stations have been written by him.