Pope leads Easter prayers
A girl hands the Cross to Pope Francis Friday as he leads the celebration of the Way of the Cross (Via Crucis) as part of Good Friday in the Vatican.
Pope Francis prayed that people don’t feel lost amid the problems of the pandemic as he listened to children’s poignant accounts of sorrow and loneliness, which provided the motif for an unusual Way of the Cross torch-lit Good Friday procession in St. Peter’s Square.
Sitting under a canopy erected over a platform outside St. Peter’s Basilica, Francis presided over the procession, which, for a second year due to pandemic concerns, couldn’t be held at its traditional venue, Rome’s Colosseum.
Instead, candles were placed in a circle around the square’s central obelisk. A nun helped a young boy carry a tall, lightweight slender cross at the start of the procession.
Children’s reflections of regret or other emotional moments of their life were read aloud, as the pope listened.
One child wrote plaintively of loneliness in the COVID -19 pandemic, from not being able to visit her grandparents to keep them safe from contagion and from missing volleyball teammates, school chums and teachers since schools in Italy have been closed for long stretches due to lockdown.
“The sadness of loneliness at times becomes unbearable,” the girl wrote.
After that child’s account was read, Francis rose and prayed that the Lord would “enlighten us in this dark night, so we don’t lose our way in this difficult period.”
The meditations were penned by scouts from Umbria and children from a Roman Catholic parish in Rome, the Vatican said.
Also read was a child’s account of losing a grandparent. “From the ambulance, men got out who looked like astronauts, covered in protective gowns, gloves, masks and visors. They took away Grandpa, who for some days was struggling to breathe. It was the last time I saw Grandpa,” the child wrote, adding that “I imagine (him) suffering also due to loneliness.”
Francis prayed that God would give people his hope so “we will be able to recognize you even in the darkest moments of our life.”
The ceremony, which recalls Jesus’ suffering in the hours before his crucifix and death on a cross, ended with the pope’s blessing.