GOOD FRIDAY: CONFESSIONS, LORD'S PASSION AND WAY OF THE CROSS

VATICAN CITY, APR 18, 2003 (VIS) - As is customary on Good Friday, John Paul II heard confessions and presided at the celebration of the Lord's Passion in St. Peter's Basilica, and in the evening lead the Way of the Cross in the Colosseum.

Towards noon, the Pope went to St. Peter's Basilica where he heard the confessions of 10 people of different nationalities and afterward greeted the numerous faithful present in the basilica at that hour.

At 5 p.m., he presided at the celebration of the Lord's Passion, during which Fr. Raniero Cantalamessa, O.F.M.Cap., preacher of the Papal Household, gave the homily. The liturgy continued with prayers of the faithful, veneration of the Cross and Holy Communion.

Shortly after 9:15 p.m., the Way of the Cross began in the Colosseum. Seated on the Palatine Hill which overlooks this monument, the Pope presided at the celebration in which 30,000 people participated. This year the Pope wrote the meditations on the Way of the Cross on the occasion of the 25th anniversary of his pontificate.

During the first 13 stations, Cardinal Camillo Ruini, vicar of Rome, and faithful from Colombia, Liberia, Sierra Leone, Egypt, the Holy Land, Italy and Iraq carried the cross. John Paul II carried the cross during the 14th and final station.

At the end, instead of reading a prepared text, the Holy Father spoke to the crowd spontaneously. "'Ecce lignum crucis in quo salus mundi pependit...Venite adoremus'. We heard this word," he said, "in today's liturgy: here is the wood of the cross. This is the key word on Good Friday. ... The day after tomorrow we will sing: 'Surrexit de sepulchro...qui pro nobis pependit in ligno'."
"I hope that everyone lives this Triduum as deeply as possible. We are here, as we are every year, in the Colosseum. It is a symbol. ... It is difficult to find another place where the mystery of the Cross speaks more eloquently than here, in front of the Colosseum."

In the text that he had prepared, the Pope wrote: "How many of our brothers and sisters are re-living the drama of Calvary in the flesh! So many are the forgotten 'ways of the cross'! I think about the tragic images of violence, wars and conflicts, that reach us daily from so many places; the pain and suffering of individuals and peoples of every continent; death due to hunger and the poverty of thousands of innocent adults and children; the offenses against human dignity, unfortunately perpetrated at times in the name of God. Can we remain indifferent to this excruciating cry of distress that is raised from so many parts of the planet?"

"When human beings keep silent, powerless before these distressing questions, faith offers the answer. It is an answer that is found in the same event we commemorate today: the death of Christ. ... The definitive victory does not belong to death. The last word belongs to God, Who will rise on the third day, the only-begotten Son, sacrificed for us."

JPII-HOLY WEEK;GOOD FRIDAY;...;...;VIS;20030423;Word: 510;