The Pope prayed for the "new crucified of today"

Rome, 19 (AICA) – "The new crucified of today" were the protagonists of a new edition of Via Crucis led by Pope Francis in the Roman Coliseum. In each season, reflections have focused on the tragedy experienced by victims of trafficking, minors traded, women forced into prostitution and migrants.

The religious director of the badociation "Slaves no more", in charge of preparing the Good Friday meditations viacrucis at the Colosseum, wanted to travel "with all the poor, the excluded of the society and the new crucified of the history of 'Today, victims of our closures, of our powers and our laws, of our blindness and our selfishness, but especially of our hearts hardened by indifference.' Among the commemorations were the 26 young Nigerians whose funerals were took place in Salerno and their compatriot Favor, 9 months old, who lost his parents at sea.

In a short final prayer, Francis asked to see "all the crosses of the world", those of hungry or abandoned people, but also those of migrants who find doors closed by fear and shielded hearts of calculations. the politicians, that of the "little wounded in their innocence".

He also spoke of a society in full secularization, with religious feeling "rejected, offended, humiliated" and believers "marginalized and rejected even by their relatives".

In the first season, the figure of Pontius Pilate inspired the prayer "for the leaders, so that they hear the cry of the poor" and "of all those young people who, in various ways, are sentenced to death for the Indifference engendered by exclusive and selfish policies. "

On the other hand, in Jesus who takes the cross, he is invited to recognize "the new Crucified One of today: the homeless, the hopeless, the unemployed, the unemployed, the immigrants forced to live in slums. margin of our society, having faced unprecedented suffering ". But the thought also addressed the children "discriminated by their origin, the color of their skin or their social clbad".

In the Stations of Jesus to Calvary, several episodes have been reported: In the meeting with Mary, the situation of "too many mothers who let their young daughters go to Europe in the hope of helping their families in extreme poverty "has been highlighted. while they have found humiliation, contempt, and sometimes even death. "In Jesus who falls for the first time, human frailty and weakness are the starting point for remembering the Samaritans of today who are bowing" with love and compbadion for the many physical and moral wounds of those who, every night, live in fear darkness, loneliness and indifference ".

And how not to see at the crossroads the many children, in different parts of the world, who can not go to school, "exploited in mines, fields, fishing, sold and bought by meat merchants, for organ transplants, as well as used and operated … by many, even by Christians. "

They are minors "deprived of the right to a happy childhood", creatures used "as cheap goods, sold and bought at will".

In the center of Sister Eugenia Bonetti's meditations, which has been fighting for years against human trafficking, there are migrants and victims of trafficking. Therefore, his call to "realize that we are all responsible for the problem" and that we can and must all be part of the solution, as we read in the eighth season, "Jesus meets women".

In the ninth row, Jesus, who falls for the third time, "exhausted and humbled under the weight of the cross". An image that also evokes the humiliation and lbaditude of "so many young people forced to go out into the streets by groups of slavers, young people who can not stand the effort and humiliation of seeing their young body manipulated, abused, destroyed, his dreams ". They are the result of the culture of scrapping. This is the uncomfortable question of God: "Where is your brother? Where is your sister?" – who should "help to share the suffering and humiliation of so many people treated as waste".

The image of the bare body of Christ, comparable to that of minors, the object of sale, allows us to reflect on idols of all times: money, wealth and power that have made everything affordable.

The last station, which leads to the tomb of Jesus, reminds us of the "new cemeteries of today": the desert and the seas where men, women, women and men live forever. children who could not or did not want to save ".

"While governments argue, locked in the palaces of power – writes Sister Eugenia – the Sahara is full of skeletons of people who have not resisted fatigue, hunger, thirst and the sea, which has become a "watershed" And then, the hope is that Christ's death can "give the leaders of nations and legislators an awareness of their role in defending every person created in the image and likeness of God, and that his resurrection be a symbol of hope, joy, new life, fraternity, welcome and communion among peoples, religions and laws. "