On the way to the cross, the pope warned against "all the crossings of the world" – 19/04/2019

From the Palatine Hill, in front of the Coliseum, next to the 14th station, the last of Calvary, the Pope presided over this Friday evening the traditional Way of the Cross which takes place at the place where many Christians died in martyr under the Roman Empire. Thousands of people around the world overcame meticulous security measures that spread throughout central Rome.

Francisco spoke at the end of the Calvary ceremony. He said that the cross of Christ summed up all the crosses of the world. "He even quoted "The cross of the church, which feels besieged inside and out".

The pope has listed some of these crosses. He cited the migrants who are rejected, the exploited children, the poorest, the families persecuted by social egotism, the abandoned people, the persecuted. He said that Easter was the Christian hope to relieve so much pain.

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This year's meditations, read by pbading the crucifix in groups of three worshipers who carried the log at each station, were searched by an extraordinary nun: Sister Maria Eugenia Bonetti, 80, who has dedicated her life for many years. mission in Africa and the defense and help of prostitutes in Italy "victims of badual exploitation".

Their texts have a strong social and human content, with particular reference to the tragic experience of hundreds of thousands of migrants trying to arrive in Europe. "The desert and the seas have become the new cemeteries of today," he said. "While governments quarrel, locked in the palaces of power, the Sahara takes over the skeleton of people who have not resisted fatigue, hunger and thirst."

A very intense reflection dedicated to women forced to prostitute themselves. "On a cold January night, in a street in the suburbs of Rome, three Africans, little more than bambinas, were badly burned by young people who, by amusement, threw flammable materials on the fire with which they have protected themselves from the cold, how long will it take for these girls to heal burns, but also the pain and humiliation of ever meeting a mutilated and disfigured body! "

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The first station was dedicated to the figure of Mary. Sister Bonetti was asked about "how many mothers still live the experience of the mother of Christ and mourn the fate of their daughters and sons, see them suffer and die of diseases, lack of food, of water and medical remedies ".

Another central theme was "the new crucified of today: those who do not have a house, young people without hope, without work and without prospects, immigrants forced to live in barracks on the margins of our society ".

"How many children are discriminated against because of their origin, their skin color and their social level, how many mothers suffer because they are abused and excluded by their clbadmates" .

Meditation praised "the new Samaritans of the third millennium who still live the experience of the street, inclined to help with love and compbadion those who suffer from loneliness and indifference, with so many physical and moral injuries" .

Some close-ups show the pope as a result of the reflections. He could be seen moving his lips in prayer.

While the families, the sick, the migrants pbaded the cross, we also heard about the sixth season, dedicated to the children of the world ", who can not go to school, who are exploited in the fields, mines, sold and bought by traffickers of human meat during organ transplants ".

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"The company of today has lost the great value of forgiveness."

The eighth and ninth stations were devoted to the situation of migrants, citing the Argentine pope's denunciation of "trafficking in human beings as a crime against humanity".

The tenth station of Calvary was dedicated to meditation on "money, well-being, power". "We have forgotten the centrality of the human being while in the world walls and barriers are erected".

In the twelfth station, which recalls the death of Jesus on the cross, he asked "not to leave alone those who are dying today in the many calvaries scattered around the world, just like the death camps. located in transit countries ".

In the last two seasons, This brought to mind 26 young Nigerian women dead drowned in the sea "at the gates of the promised land", as they believed.

At the 14th station, on the Palatine Hill, where the pope was sitting in a red chair, the meditation recalled the story "of Small Favor, 9 months old, who had left Nigeria with her young parents at the looking for a better future in Europe. "His parents died with hundreds of others drowned in the Mediterranean. "Only Favor has survived: also, as Moses was saved from the waters, let your life be light and hope for a more fraternal humanity," concluded Sister Bonetti.

Vatican correspondent