While a solemn Via Crucis of Good Friday is usually led by the Holy Father at the Colosseum, this year, it will be outside of St. Peter’s Basilica.
The meditations were composed this year by a community of prisoners, particularly appropriate as Pope Francis was unable to celebrate the Mass of the Lord’s Supper, with the Washing of the Feet, at a prison, as he usually does.
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The Holy Father commented about the meditations in a letter written to Northern Italy when the pandemic first started raging in the region.
Pope Francis said he was “moved” when he read the meditations that the prisoners and those associated with the prison had prepared: “I felt very much involved in this story, I felt like a brother who has made mistakes, and like those who agree to stand beside them to resume the ascent.”
Balancing mercy and justice, he continued, is not easy; but when that balance is achieved, all of society gains by it.
Pope Francis thanked the “parish of the prison,” and all who work in the area of corrections, saying, “God bless the good heart of those who challenge indifference with tenderness.”
The text of the Meditations can be followed from the link below:
Read more:
Text of the Stations of the Cross for 2020, led by Pope Francis
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Pope asks prisoners to write Good Friday meditations
And today we celebrate...