In the Roman Colosseum

At 9:15pm this evening, the Holy Father, Pope Francis presided over the pious exercise of the Via Crucis (the Way of the Cross) which will take place inside the Colosseum in Rome.  There were about 20,000 faithful in attendance.

The texts of the meditations for this year were prepared by the French Biblical scholar Anne-Marie Pelletier.

With much security amidst a climate of meditation and prayer, thousands of small flames from candles illuminated the night.

List of those who will carry the cross

during the Via Crucis

At the First Station
His Eminence, Cardinal Agostino Vallini
Vicar of His Holiness for the Diocese of Rome

At the Second Station
Marco Raspa and Eleonora Magini with their daughter Sara
A family from the city of Rome

At the Third Station
Antonino Tuzzolino, a disabled man in a wheelchair
Alejandro Ramirez, an ambulance attendant
Letizia Del Gallo, a supporting Sister
Maria Virginia Cherra, a supporting Sister
Representatives from U.N.I.T.A.L.S.I.

At the Fourth Station
Alksandra Maga, a Polish student from the Sapienza
Lucia Lombardi, an Italian

At the Fifth Station
Mario Ugolini and Liviana Ceci
Italians from Rimini

At the Sixth Station
Sister Sherly Anthikadan
Sister Shigi Kokkadan, and
Sister Mareena Kokkatt
Religious women from the Congregation of Sisters of Jesus

At the Seventh Station
Sister Maria Teresa Mbeva, and
Sister Maria Agata Ogbugo
Benedictine Sisters of Repatriation of the Holy Face
- as well as -
Ms. Sylviane Emmanuella Nikiema
Burkina Faso
- and -
Mister Théodeore Muanza Muanza
Democratic Republic of Congo

At the Eighth Station
Hany Mourad Yassa Mosaad
Egypt
Dina Atef Khalifa Sawers with her daughters
Angelina, Maria and Helana

At the Ninth Station
Nuno Tomás and David Silva
Portugal

At the Tenth Station
Claver Martinez Ariza and Marlene Ortiz Ariza
along with their children Rolando M. Ortiz and Lorenzo M. Ortiz
Columbia

At the Eleventh Station
Aymeric and Emilie Pourbaix
France

At the Twelfth Station
Wang Shuai and Huang Ying
China

At the Thirteenth Station
Brothers from the Holy Land
Father Ulise Zarza from Argentina
Father Elias Mario Badie from Israel

At the Fourteenth Station
Cardinal Agostino Vallini, Vicar of His Holiness for Rome
Along with Silvia Manocchi and Davide Villino
Youth carrying torches

Prayer of His Holiness, Pope Francis

at the conclusion of the Via Crucis

O Christ, left alone and even betrayed and sold out by your own people.
O Christ, judged by sinners, delivered by leaders.
O Christ, in anguished flesh, crowned with thorns and clothed in purple.
O Christ, scourged and nailed horribly.
O Christ, pierced by the lance that pierced Your heart.
O Christ, dead and buried, You Who are the God of life and existence.
O Christ, our only Saviour, we come back to you again this year with eyes downcast with shame and with a heart full of hope:

Of shame, for all the images of devastation, destruction and shipwreck that have become common in our lives;

Shame, for the innocent blood that is shed every day by women, children, immigrants and people persecuted for the colour of their skin or because of their ethnic and social belonging and for their faith in you;

Shame for the times we too, like Judas and Peter, sold, betrayed and left you alone to die for our sins, cowards running away from our responsibilities;

Shame for our silence before injustice; for our hand in laziness and greed; for our loud voice in defending our interests and our shy voice in speaking for the interests of others; for our quick feet, on the path of evil and our paralysis in doing good;

Shame for all the times that we Bishops, priests, consecrated men and women have scandalized and hurt Your Body, the Church; and we have forgotten our first love, our first enthusiasm and our total availability, leaving our hearts and our consecration to rust.

So much shame, Lord, but our heart is also nostalgic for the confident hope that You do not treat us according to our merits, but solely according to the multitude of Your mercy; that our betrayals do not negate the immensity of Your love; Your heart, the heart of a mother and a father. Do not forget us because of the hardness of our hearts;

The sure hope that our names are etched in Your heart and that we are placed in the apple of Your eye;
Hope that your Cross turns our hardened hearts into hearts of flesh, able to dream,
to forgive and to love; able to transform this dark night of the Crossinto the meteoric rise of your Resurrection;
Hope that Your truth is not based on our own;
Hope that the group of men and women faithful to your Cross continues and will continue, to remain faithful like the flavour of yeast and as the light that opens up new horizons in the body of our wounded humanity;
Hope that your church will try to be the voice crying in the desert of humanity to prepare the way for Your triumphant return, when you come to judge the living and the dead; the hope that good will win in spite of its apparent defeat!

O Lord Jesus, the Son of God, innocent victim of our redemption,
before thy royal banner, your mystery of death and glory,
before your scaffold, we kneel, ashamed and hopeful,
and ask that You wash away the blood with the water
which flowed from your pierced Heart; to forgive our sins and our guilt;

We ask you to remember our brothers and sisters cut off by violence, indifference and war;
We ask you to break the chains that hold us prisoners in our selfishness,
in our voluntary blindness and in the futility of our worldly calculations.

O Christ, we ask you to teach us to never be ashamed of Your Cross,
not to exploit it, but to honour and worship it, because with it,
You have shown us the monstrosity of our sins,
the greatness of Your Love, the injustice of our judgments
and the power of Your Love. Amen.