Pope Francis, who was hospitalized last week for bronchitis, canceled his presence at yesterday’s nightly Via Crucis at the Colosseum in Rome due to low temperatures in the Italian capital, the Vatican said.
“Due to the intense cold these days, Pope Francis will follow the Via Crucis tonight from his residence in Santa Marta (in the Vatican, ed),” the Vatican reported in a note.
The decision was made to protect the health of the pontiff, since the Via Crucis is nocturnal and takes place outdoors in front of the famous Roman monument with the assistance of faithful and tourists from all over the world.
An unusual cold wave for this period of the year has been hitting Rome for a few days, with temperatures that do not exceed 10°C at night.
Francisco, 86, did preside over the mass that was celebrated a few hours before in the Basilica of San Pedro.
Meditations. At night, the meditations on the Stations of the Cross had the motto “Voices of peace in times of war” as their guiding thread.
In the different stations the suffering that the world is going through was denounced. The young people, the Vatican reported, came “from lands wounded by bombs, shots, missiles or fratricidal hatred. They are men and women, young and old, parents or consecrated persons”.
From South America, a mother who was the victim of a guerrilla bombing in 2012, who saw her daughter with pieces of glass on her face, read a meditation. “What it must have been like for Mary to see the swollen and bloody face of Jesus! “In the disfigured face of those who suffer: Grant us to recognize you, Lord Jesus!” she invoked.
Another of the meditations, the third, when Jesus falls for the first time, was given by young people from Central America, who also spoke of falls: “laziness”, “fear”, “discouragement”. They cried: Lift us up, Lord Jesus!
Since his election in 2013, Francis has participated in the Via Crucis in Rome, a highlight of Holy Week, which commemorates the death of Christ, according to the Gospel account.
Organized since 1964 in the Roman amphitheater, specially illuminated for the occasion, the Via Crucis stopped being celebrated in that place only in 2020 and 2021 due to the coronavirus pandemic.
Francisco uses a wheelchair to get around due to knee pain, he was hospitalized for three days last week in Rome with infectious bronchitis, fueling speculation about his possible resignation.
Since being discharged on Saturday, he has participated in various ceremonies at the Vatican, including the Palm Sunday mass and Wednesday’s general audience.
On Thursday he washed the feet of 12 young people detained in a Rome prison to practice there the traditional rite of washing the feet of marginalized people.
And tomorrow he must preside over the Easter mass in Saint Peter’s Square and impart the traditional blessing “Urbi et Orbi” (to the city and the world) in addition to reading the traditional message on the problems of the world.
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