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

VATICAN CITY, APR 9, 2004 (VIS) - As is customary on Good Friday, John Paul II heard confessions this morning,  presided at the celebration of the Lord's Passion in St. Peter's Basilica in late afternoon, and in the evening lead the Way of the Cross at the Colosseum.

  Continuing a tradition he inaugurated at the start of his pontificate, the Holy Father, at 12 noon, came to St. Peter's Basilica where, behind a specially built screen built to accommodate his mobile chair, he heard the confessions of 10 people from Poland, Italy, the United States, Spain, Ukraine and Slovakia who knelt on a kneeler in front of the screen.

   At 5 p.m. in St. Peter's Basilica, which was filled to capacity with pilgrims, members of the diplomatic corps, the College of Cardinals and bishops, the Pope presided at the celebration of the Lord's Passion, along with Cardinals Joseph Ratzinger, Francesco Mario Pompedda and Julian Herranz. After the reading of the Passion, Father Cantalamessa offered a reflection on how the Bible, especially the Old Testament, deals with the theme of violence. He then reflected on violence in our days, especially that which is inflicted in the name of God.

  Following the homily were the prayers of the faithful which included a prayer for Pope John Paul, "that God, Who chose him to be bishop, may give him health and strength to guide and govern God's holy people." There was also, as there is every year, a prayer for the Jews: "May our God Who chose them before all other people to accept His Word, help them always move forward in the love of His name and faithfulness to His covenant."

  When the Cross was brought forward for veneration, Pope John Paul, whose arthritis has been especially painful, knelt for some time in prayer.

  Later that evening, at 9:15, the Pope went to the Colosseum for the traditional Good Friday Way of the Cross. Seated on the Palatine Hill overlooking this monument, the Pope, sitting under a canopy and in front of a huge candlelit Cross, presided at the celebration in the presence of tens of thousands of faithful who carried candles and followed the liturgy with booklets distributed by the Vatican as they stood under gray and occasionally rainy skies.

  The Via Crucis meditations were written by Fr. Andre Louf of Belgian, a Cistercian monk, who after 35 years as abbot of the monastery of Notre Dame de Mont-des-Cats, France, retired to a hermitage in the south of France where he currently resides.

  For the first 13 stations, the Cross was carried by Cardinal Camillo Ruini, vicar of Rome, the Franciscan Custos of the Holy Land, a Roman family, a lay woman from the island of Grenada, a priest from the diocese of Orange in California, a woman religious from India, a layman from Jordan, a religious from Burundi and a young girl from Madrid. John Paul II held the cross during the 14th and final station.

  The Holy Father briefly addressed the faithful who had gathered for this liturgy at the evocative setting of the Colosseum. "'Venit hora! The hour has come! The hour of the Son of man. ... 'Venit hora crucis'. 'The hour to pass from this world to the Father'. The hour of the agonizing suffering of the Son of God, a suffering that, even 20 centuries later, continues to move us intimately and to summon us. The Son of God reached this hour precisely to give His life for His brothers. This is the hour of offertory - the hour of the revelation of infinite love."

  "The hour for the Son of man to be glorified has also come," said the Pope. "Is it not our duty in this hour to give glory to God the Father Who did not spare his own Son, but Who gave Him for all of us? Is it not time to glorify the Son Who 'humbled Himself and became obedient right up to death, death on the Cross'?"
JPII-HOLY WEEK/GOOD FRIDAY/...                   VIS 20040414 (680)