As announced, Pope Leo XIV carried the cross through the 14 Stations of the Cross at the Colosseum in Rome, on the evening of the first Good Friday of his pontificate, in a Way of the Cross tinged with the suffering of women and meditation on the authority received from God, in which more than twenty thousand people participated.
It was the second time that a Pope has carried the cross in all the Stations of the Cross since the tradition was revived in the Coliseum more than six decades ago. As reported last night by Vatican News, St. John Paul II did so from 1980 to 1994.
Last year, Pope Francis was unable to attend the Stations of the Cross due to his delicate health (he passed away on Easter Monday), and previously, he had presided the Stations of the Cross from the Palatine Hill.
Adoration of the Cross
In the afternoon, the Pope presided over the Celebration of the Passion of the Lord in St. Peter's Basilica, with the reading of the Passion according to St. John. Two of the highlights of the two-hour liturgy were the prostration and the kissing of the Cross, which the Holy Father began without the red chasuble, and the showing of the Cross to the faithful for their adoration.
"I will talk about the suffering of mothers and women.”
In a interview Patton ofm had anticipated some of the themes he would touch on in his commentary on the fourteen Stations of the Cross.
“I will speak of the suffering of mothers and women who today incarnate the figure of Mary, of Veronica, of the women of Jerusalem”. (...) “In the reflections and prayers, the inspiration of today's reality and of concrete people is evident”, in particular the suffering of Christians in the Middle East because of the war, he added.
Writings of St. Francis of Assisi and messages of Fr. Patton
He also revealed that he had been inspired “by the texts of the Gospels, giving preference to the Evangelist John, who has a profound look at the mystery of the Lord's Passion; and also by the Writings of St. Francis, which are a veritable mine of Christian spirituality”.
The following is a summary of several of Fr. Patton's messages on the Way of the Cross in the Roman Colosseum, which you can consult in full here.
I Station. Jesus is condemned to death
S. Fco. of Assisi: “Let those who have received the power to judge others exercise judgment with mercy, as they themselves wish to obtain mercy from the Lord. For there will be judgment without mercy for those who have not shown mercy”.
P. Patton: “Francis of Assisi, who simply tried to follow in your footsteps, reminds us that every authority must answer to God for the way it exercises the power it has received: the power to judge, but also the power to start a war or to end it; the power to educate to violence or to peace; the power to nourish the desire for revenge or for reconciliation; the power to use the economy to oppress peoples or to free them from misery; the power to trample on human dignity or to protect it; the power to promote and defend life or to reject and suppress it.”.
“Each of us is also called to answer for the power we exercise in everyday life.”.
Station II. Jesus carries the Cross
S. Fco de Asis: "In this we may glory: in our infirmities and in bearing daily the holy cross of our Lord Jesus Christ”.
P. Patton: "The word “cross” produces in us a reaction of rejection rather than desire. Yet, Jesus, you embraced it and carried it on your shoulders, and then you let yourself be carried by it.
Deliver us, Jesus, from fear and rejection of the cross.
IV Station. Jesus meets his Mother
S. Fco. of Assisi: “If the mother cares for and loves her carnal child, how much more lovingly should each one love and care for his spiritual brother?”
P. Patton: “O Mary, grant us a motherly heart, to understand and share the suffering of others, and to learn, also in this way, what it means to love”.
V Station, Jesus is helped by the Cyrenean to carry the cross
S. Fco. of Assisi: “Blessed is the man who bears with his neighbor in his frailty, as he would want him to bear with him, if he were in a similar situation”.
P. Patton: “O Lord, help us to be empathetic and compassionate people, not in words but in deeds and in truth.”.
VII Station. Jesus falls for the second time
S. Fco. of Assisi: “Let no brother do evil or speak evil of the other; but rather, by the charity of the spirit, serve and obey one another willingly”.
P. Patton: “When you fall, Jesus, you do it to raise us up from our falls (...). When you fall, you do it to raise me up too”.
Station VIII. Jesus meets the women of Jerusalem
S. Fco. of Assisi: “Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven: that we may love you with all our heart, thinking always of you; with all our soul, desiring you always; with all our mind, directing all our intentions to you, seeking your honor in all things; and with all our strength (...), and that we may love our neighbor as ourselves”.
P. Patton: “Jesus, women always followed you and helped you, from the beginning of your preaching. They continue to do so now, standing also at the foot of the cross”.
“Where there is suffering or need, there the women are.”.
“Women continue to weep. Grant each of us also, Lord, a compassionate heart, a maternal heart, and the ability to feel as our own the suffering of others.”.
IX station. Jesus falls for the third time
S. Fco. of Assisi: “We thank you because, just as through your Son you created us, so, by your holy love with which you loved us, you caused him, true God and true man, to be born of the glorious ever-virgin Blessed Mary, and willed that we, captives, should be redeemed by his cross and blood and death”.
P. Patton: “Your threefold fall reminds us that there is no fall of ours in which you are not at our side (...) Sustain us in our unbelief and give us the grace to believe that you can lift us up”.
XI station. Jesus is nailed to the cross
S. Fco. of Assisi: “Praised be you, my Lord, / For those who forgive for your love, / And suffer sickness and tribulation, / Blessed are those who endure them in peace, / For by you, Most High, they shall be crowned”.
P. Patton: “You, crucified King, remind us that, if we want to be sharers in your kingship, we too must learn to forgive out of love for you and face the difficulties of life in peace, because what wins is not love by force, but the force of love.”.
Pope's Blessing
In his final blessing of the Way of the Cross, Leo XIV said: “Let us make our own the prayer with which St. Francis invites us to live our existence as a path of progressive participation in the relationship of love that unites the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit”.
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