Text 1264, 61 rader
Skriven 2006-04-20 09:47:38 av Marc Lewis (1:396/45)
Ärende: Vatican Information Service - Press Release
===================================================
Hello All!

                The following press release is Copyrighted by the
                          Vatican Information Service.
                ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
                               VIS-Press releases

GOOD FRIDAY: LORD'S PASSION, WAY OF THE CROSS AT COLOSSEUM

VATICAN CITY, APR 14, 2006 (VIS) - In the Vatican Basilica at 5 p.m. today,
Good Friday, the Pope presided at the celebration of the Lord's Passion.
Following the reading of the Passion, Fr. Raniero Cantalamessa O.F.M. Cap.,
preacher of the Pontifical Household, pronounced his customary Good Friday
homily in which he recalled how, whilst the Passion and Death of the Savior are
being celebrated, millions of people are induced to believe, "by the skillful
manipulation of ancient legends, that Jesus of Nazareth was never in fact
crucified."

At 9.15 p.m., the Holy Father travelled to the Colosseum where he led the 'Via
Crucis' or Way of the Cross. The loss of a sense of sin and its dramatic
consequences for humanity were the central theme of the meditations, which this
year were prepared by Archbishop Angelo Comastri, the Pope's vicar general for
Vatican City State.

Benedict XVI carried the cross for the first and last stations. Over the other
stations, it was borne by Cardinal Camillo Ruini, vicar general for the diocese
of Rome, a family from the city, an American seminarian, two female religious,
three young women from Mexico, Angola and Nigeria, and two Franciscans from the
Custody of the Holy Land.

At the end of the ceremony, the Holy Father delivered some off-the-cuff remarks
to those present: "The Cross of the Lord," he said, "embraces the world. Its
'Via Crucis' covers all continents and times. In the 'Via Crucis' we cannot be
mere spectators. We too are involved and so must seek out our place."

"In the Cross of Christ today," he went on, "we have seen the suffering of
abandoned and abused children; threats against the family; the division of the
world in the pride of the rich who do not see Lazarus at their door, and the
poverty of so many who suffer hunger and thirst."

Yet the suffering is accompanied by consolation, he added. "We have seen the
Mother, whose goodness remained faithful to the end. We have seen the
courageous woman who remained before the Lord and was not afraid to show her
solidarity with the One Who suffered. We have seen Simon of Cyrene, the African
who bore the Cross with Christ."

In this way, said Pope Benedict, "we have understood that the 'Via Crucis' is
not simply a collection of the dark and sad things of the world. It is not
useless moralism or a cry of protest that changes nothing. The 'Via Crucis' is
the way of mercy, of the mercy that puts a limit to evil. This is what we
learned from Pope John Paul II."

It is, he concluded, "the way of mercy, and so the way of salvation. And thus
we are invited to take the path of mercy and, with Jesus, to place a limit to
evil."
BXVI-HOLY WEEK/GOOD FRIDAY/... VIS 060420 (490)

SUMMARY

--- MPost/386 v1.21
 * Origin: Sursum Corda! BBS =Meridian, MS= bbs.sursum-corda.com (1:396/45)