Pope himself will write Colosseum Via Crucis meditations

For the second year in a row, Pope Francis will himself write the meditations that will be used for the Via Crucis on Good Friday in the Colosseum. Like last year, the Holy Father is not expected to be in attendance, and Cardinal Baldassare Reina, the Pontiff's Vicar for the Diocese of Rome, will replace him.

Francis himself wrote the meditations for the traditional celebration of the Way of the Cross also in 2024. That was the first time he had written them and some 20 years since they had been written by a pope.

The last pope to have written the meditations himself was John Paul II in 2003, two years before his death. In 2005, the year he became pope following John Paul II's death, they were written by Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger (Benedict XVI).

The Via Crucis in the Colosseum is held in the late evening of Good Friday (after 9 p.m.). In 2023 and 2024, Pope Francis cancelled his participation in the open-air event, in order to protect his health.

The meditations are written each year by a person or group of people selected by the Holy Father. This brings to the prayer of the Universal Church a variety of individual experiences and reflections. For example, they have been written by prisoners, the youth of Lebanon, and various theologians, and clergy.

Families in various situations -- migrants, grandparents, adoptive, childless, etc -- prepared the meditations in 2022. One of the stations was initially written by a representative of Ukraine and Russia together. After protests, that meditation was not read, and the station was lived in silence.