Leo XIV will carry the cross in the 14 Stations of the Cross at the Colosseum

Courtney Mares, OSV News

Pope Leo XIV will himself carry the cross through the 14 Stations of the Cross in Rome's Colosseum on the first Good Friday of his pontificate.

It will be the first time that a pope has carried the cross in all the Stations of the Cross since the tradition was revived there more than six decades ago.

The Pope's predecessors, Benedict XVI and St. John Paul II, only carried the cross at the beginning and end of the Way of the Cross at the Colosseum. Pope Francis presided over the Stations of the Cross from the nearby Palatine Hill and, in his later years, did not attend at all due to his delicate health condition.

In 1756, Pope Benedict XIV dedicated the Colosseum to the memory of the Passion of Christ and the first Christian martyrs, and the Stations of the Cross were dedicated to the memory of the Passion of Christ and the first Christian martyrs. regularly prayed at the Coliseum for about 100 years in the 18th and 19th centuries. St. John XXIII restored the tradition of the Stations of the Cross at the Colosseum, and St. Paul VI made it a regular tradition in Rome.

The author of the text of the Stations of the Cross

The meditations for this year's Papal Stations of the Cross were written by Franciscan Father Francesco Patton, who was Custos of the Holy Land from 2016 to 2025. From Mount Nebo in Jordan, Father Patton has been a constant voice in defense of those suffering in the midst of conflict and instability in the Middle East. The Holy See Press Office has announced that the texts will be published on the morning of Good Friday, April 3.

Last year's Stations of the Cross meditations were written by the late Pope Francis after a prolonged hospitalization in Rome's Gemelli Hospital, although he was ultimately unable to attend the Colosseum ceremony due to his health condition.

Pope Leo is also reviving another papal tradition for Holy Week on Holy Thursday, celebrating a public Mass of the Lord's Supper in the Basilica of St. John Lateran, which includes the traditional foot washing.

Pope Francis had broken with the practice of public papal Mass on Holy Thursday, opting instead to celebrate the liturgy in prisons and wash the feet of inmates. The return of Pope Leo XIII to St. John Lateran restores the public liturgies of the Easter Triduum to their traditional setting for the first time in years.