ROME, April 1: Pope Leo XIV will carry the cross himself during the Good Friday procession at the Colosseum in Rome in remembrance of the Passion of Jesus Christ, the Vatican announced on Tuesday.
By doing so, the new head of the Catholic Church is returning to a tradition of the Easter celebrations, it said.
This will be Leo’s first Easter as pontiff. His predecessor, Francis, died on Easter Monday last year at the age of 88.
Due to his failing health, the Argentinian was unable in his final years to take part in the Stations of the Cross, which is held at the Colosseum after dark.
Nevertheless, tens of thousands of worshippers regularly gathered at the almost 2,000-year-old amphitheatre.
In 2020 and 2021, the ceremony had to be relocated to St. Peter’s Square due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Images of the pope in the empty square were seen around the world at the time.
Another Easter tradition is for the pontiff to wash the feet of the faithful on Holy Thursday. Leo plans to do this in Rome’s Archbasilica of St John Lateran for 12 priests – unlike Francis, who had visited prisoners in jail for this purpose.
On Sunday, following Easter Sunday Mass in St. Peter’s Square, the pope is expected to impart the Urbi et Orbi blessing – Latin for “to the city and the world” – before tens of thousands of people.
–BERNAMA-dpa