Via Crucis Archives

Pope on Good Friday hears children tell of pandemic losses

Apr 3, 2021

Pope Francis prayed that people don’t feel lost amid the problems of the pandemic as he listened to children’s poignant accounts of sorrow and loneliness, which provided the motif for an unusual Way of the Cross torch-lit Good Friday procession in St. Peter’s Square.

By Frances D'Emilio

Pope leads ‘Way of the Cross’ service in deserted St. Peter’s Square

Apr 10, 2020

Shortly after assuring of his closeness amid the COVID-19 coronavirus outbreak on an Italian television program, Pope Francis on Good Friday yet again appeared in a nearly empty St. Peter’s Square to lead a livestreamed Via Crucis with meditations written by prisoners.

By Elise Ann Allen

Pope highlights prisoners’ unique ‘Way of the Cross’ on Good Friday

Apr 10, 2020

Meditations for Pope Francis’s “Via Crucis” ceremony on Good Friday were written by prisoners and their families, as well as crime victims and their families.

By Elise Ann Allen

Prisons’ Passion: Via Crucis meditations reflect on aftermath of crime

Apr 3, 2020

While Pope Francis’s Way of the Cross service on Good Friday has been transferred to the Vatican because of the coronavirus pandemic, the meditations focus, as always, on those who share the pain, suffering and heartbreak that characterized Christ’s passion and death.

By Junno Arocho Esteves

Pope asks prison community to compose Via Crucis meditations

Mar 10, 2020

Pope Francis has asked the prisoners, guards and the chaplain of a northern Italian prison to write this year’s Way of the Cross meditations.

By Junno Arocho Esteves

Via Crucis in Mumbai addresses abuse scandal in Church

Apr 19, 2019

Catholics in Mumbai reflected on the abuse scandal facing the Church during a Via Crucis in the city’s historically-Christian Bandra neighborhood.

By Nirmala Carvalho

Nun: Colosseum Via Crucis reflections to show Christ is ‘still suffering today’

Apr 17, 2019

Sister Eugenia Bonetti says that her reflections for the Way of the Cross will show the way in which Jesus is still suffering today.

By Christopher White

Pope asks anti-trafficking nun to write Way of Cross meditations

Apr 5, 2019

Pope Francis has asked an Italian nun, who has been on the frontlines in the fight against human trafficking, to write this year’s Way of the Cross meditations.

By Carol Glatz