Pope Francis presided over a Good Friday service in St. Peter's Basilica this Friday (29), before an evening procession at Rome's Colosseum, marking Jesus' death by crucifixion.
Good Friday ends on Sunday (31), with Easter, the most important date in the Church's liturgical calendar, celebrating the day on which Christians believe that Jesus rose from the dead.
The pope will preside over an Easter Vigil service on Saturday (30) and then, on Sunday, he will celebrate Easter Mass and read his biannual message and blessing “Urbi et Orbi” (for the city and the world) on the central balcony of the Basilica of Saint Peter.
The 87-year-old pontiff, who suffers from mobility and respiratory problems, appeared to be doing better this week. Still, he arrived at St. Peter's Basilica with a wheelchair as he joined cardinals and bishops for the service of the Lord's Passion on Good Friday.
In previous years, Francis would begin by prostrating himself on the marble floor of the basilica, but his physical condition no longer allows him to do this. Instead, he prayed silently in front of the altar in his wheelchair.
The Passion of the Lord features songs in Latin that narrate events from Jesus' arrest to his burial, and is one of the few services in which the pope does not give a homily, leaving it to the preacher of the papal household.
Later on Friday, Francis would preside over the “Via Crucis” procession at the Colosseum, in which participants walk through the ancient Roman arena holding a cross, reenacting Jesus' last hours and stopping to pray and listen to meditations.
Francis personally wrote this year's meditations, the first of his 11-year papacy. They included praise for meekness and forgiveness in response to acts of evil, and prayers for persecuted Christians and victims of war.
The pope, who called for the Church to become less male-dominated, also hailed the women who helped Jesus as he carried the cross, and called for “those [mulheres] who in our days are exploited and suffer injustices and indignities”.
In another sign of the focus on women, Francis performed the foot-washing ritual on Thursday, which recalls Jesus' gesture of humility to his apostles at the Last Supper, in a women's prison in Rome.
Source: CNN Brasil
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