This Good Friday the Pope will pray a version of the Way of the Cross written by a group of young scouts and by a group of 8- to 19-year-olds from a parish in Rome.
The prayer features drawings such as these, made by 3- to 8-year-old children from foster families or otherwise assisted by the Church.
To understand the meditations, it’s important to put oneself in the children's shoes, because they apply the stages of Christ’s Passion to their own daily lives
Last year the meditations evoked the suffering of prisoners…
…This year they shine a light on the struggles of children: their first mistakes in school, the regret of being mean to a classmate, or even the nostalgia for their grandparents, after not being able to see them for risk of infection.
Like last year, the Pope will pray the Way of the Cross in St. Peter’s Square without an audience of pilgrims, rather than in the Colosseum.
Only the children who wrote the prayers will be in attendance.
Four of them will read the texts, one for each institution involved in the event.
Another eight will carry a cross through St. Peter’s Square, while the other approximately 40 children will follow the Way of the Cross with the Pope in front of the basilica.
Javier Romero
