Ukraine war weighs on pope's Good Friday Colosseum ritual
ROME >> The war in Ukraine loomed over the traditional Good Friday Colosseum procession in Rome, after the Vatican's choice of a Russian woman to share bearing the cross with a Ukrainian woman had angered Ukrainians.
In an apparent attempt to defuse the objections, when the moment arrived for the two women, who work together at a Rome hospital, to walk with the cross together, the ceremony's participants were invited to pause in “prayerful silence” and pray in their heart for peace in the world.
The original script, written with the women's input, had spoken of prospects for “reconciliation.” That wording had sparked protests by both the Ukrainian ambassador to the Holy See and a Kyiv archbishop.
They objected to projecting what they saw as the idea of reconciliation while Ukraine is ravaged by war unleashed by Russia.
For the first time since before the pandemic, the solemn torchlit procession returned to the ancient arena in Rome Friday night. Thousands of pilgrims and tourists held small, lit candles as Pope Francis, looking pensive and wearing a white coat against the damp night air, sat under a canopy placed on an elevated viewing point.
At each Station of the Cross, reflecting details of Jesus' suffering and death by crucifixion, a different family walked with the cross, and meditations, written by them, were read aloud.
The women were identified only by their first names in interviews on Italian Rai state TV: Irina, a nurse from Ukraine and Albina, a Russian nursing student.
Ahead of the procession, Albina told Rai that it was important to “pray for the children who are no more, for the soldiers who lost their lives and can't even be buried.” Irina described the sharing of the cross-carrying as a “great responsibility.”
The Vatican didn't respond to the protests. But apparently in reaction to the flap, the original meditation to be read while they shared bearing the cross, was shortened considerably for the procession.
The meditation said that “in the face of death, silence is the most eloquent of words.” Participants were then invited to pause iand “pray for peace in the world.” The two women looked somberly into each others eyes for a long moment as they carried the cross.
Vatican spokesman Matteo Bruni said the text was shortened to allow people to stay in “silence and in prayer.”
Francis made no reference to the flap. Instead, at the procession's conclusion, he prayed that God “bring adversaries to shake hands, so that they taste reciprocal forgiveness.” He also prayed that God “disarm the hand raised by brother against brother, so that where there is hatred, harmony will bloom.”