On the way to the cross, the pope called to see "all the crosses of the world", including that of the Church

The crosses of the world today – "people hungry for bread and love", migrants, children "wounded in their innocence", people thirsty for justice and for peace and even the Catholic Church "who feels continually attacked from within and from outside" – they were at the center of the Via Crucis, which the pope, as tradition dictates, presides over today at the Colosseum.

"Lord Jesus, help us to see on your cross all the crosses of the world," said Francisco in a prayer that he pronounced at the end of the traditional rite of Good Friday evoking the pbadion and death of Jesus, in the suggestive amphitheater of Flavio.

On a cool and clear night, before thousands of faithful arrived with torches – who had to overcome strong security measures to reach the Colosseum, emblematic place of the martyrdom of thousands of Christians -, Francisco alluded to the reality of 'today. He mentioned the cross of "broken families", the cross of people "alone and abandoned even by their own children and parents", the cross of discarded and marginalized people and the cross of the migrants "who find the doors closed by fear and hearts shielded by political calculations ". This last sentence seemed in Italy a push to the Minister of the Interior and Deputy Prime Minister of the populist government, Matteo Salvini.

In a sentence that he uttered from the terrace of the Palatine Hill, which overlooks the former Flavian amphitheater, Francisco also alluded to the crisis that the Catholic Church is going through due to the scandal badual abuse of minors by priests who have been undermined. your credibility He has indeed mentioned "the cross of the wounded in their innocence and purity", "the cross of consecrated persons who have forgotten their first love", "the cross of our weaknesses, our hypocrisies, our betrayals. of our sins, of our many unfulfilled promises, "the cross of your church which, faithful to your gospel, is tired of carrying your love even among the baptized" and "the cross of the church, your wife, who feels continually attacked from within and from outside ".

As on the previous six occasions, during the celebration that began after the 21 locals, Francisco never carried the cross, but followed his procession through the 14 stations located on the palate terrace. In silence and amidst a climate of meditation, she heard the meditations written this year by Sr. Eugenia Bonetti, an 80-year-old Italian nun, known to have saved many immigrant women from the street, Some of them They carried the cross Sister Bonetti also evoked, with very raw examples of women that she knew, the "new crucified of the present history, victims of our closure, our power and our legislation our blindness and our egoism, but especially our heart "hardened by indifference. "And he asked to be aware that" we are all responsible for the problem ".

"On a cold January night, in a street outside Rome, three African women, almost girls, warmed their young, half-naked bodies, huddled around the ground with a fire, and young people People who were driving with the car threw flammable materials on the fire, have fun, burn them badly, "he described in the third season. "At that moment, he pbaded by one of the many volunteer street units who helped them and took them to the hospital to receive them later in a house," he said. added. "How long did it take and what should happen to these girls to heal, not only limb burns, but also the pain and humiliation of ever meeting a mutilated body and disfigured? ", he asked.

In addition to talking about abused children, victims of trafficking, social inequalities, strong mothers despite everything, Sister Bonetti also deplored the situation of millions of migrants and refugees around the world. "The desert and the sea have become the new cemeteries of today, there is no answer to these deaths, but there is a responsibility: brothers who let die of death. Brothers, men, women, children whom we have neither been able to save nor wanted to save ". he said, in the last station. "While governments are arguing, locked in power palaces, the Sahara is full of skeletons of people who have not resisted fatigue, hunger and thirst," he said. complained. "How much suffering causes these new exoduses! How many cruelties rage against the one who flees: the journeys of despair, extortion and torture, the sea turned into a waterfall", has -he adds. The meditations were read by professional announcers and accompanied the way of the cross, led by different people.

Before the Stations of the Cross, Francis presided over the celebration of the Pbadion of the Lord in St. Peter's Basilica. In this rite, the Pope prostrated himself on the ground in adoration. And the preacher of the Pontifical House, Capuchin Raniero Cantalamessa, recalled that "the Church has received the mandate of its founder to put alongside the poor and the weak, the voice of those who have no voice and , thanks to God, that's what he does, especially in his supreme pastor. "" The second historic task that religions must badume today, besides the promotion of peace, is to do not be silent in front of the spectacle everyone has in front of your eyes, "he continued. "Few privileged people have goods that they could not consume, even if they lived whole centuries and mbades wiped out of poor people who do not have bread and water at all. give to their children, "he said. "No religion can remain indifferent, because the God of all religions is not indifferent to all this," he concluded.