On Good Friday, Pope hears sorrows of prisoners and victims

Pope Francis presided at a “Way of the Cross” service held in an empty St. Peter’s Square on Friday because of the coronavirus outbreak and listened as both prisoners and their victims recounted their sorrows.

It marked the first time the procession, commemorating the last hours in Jesus’ life, was not held at Rome’s ancient Colosseum since the modern-day tradition was re-introduced by Pope Paul VI in 1964.

Francis watched from under a canopy on the steps of the basilica as 10 people - half from the Italian prison system and half from the Vatican’s health services - carried a cross and flaming torches towards him.

Speakers read meditations as the group stopped 14 times to mark each of the “Stations of the Cross” starting with the first when Jesus was condemned to death by Pontius Pilate to the last when he was buried in a tomb.

The meditations are written by different groups each year and this time they were penned by prisoners, including a murderer, from a jail in northern Italy, and prison guards, chaplains, and family members of both prisoners and victims.

“I committed an evil immensely greater than any of those that I had received,” said the meditation written by the murderer.