Loading...
Loading...
Click here if you don’t see subscription options
Catholic News ServiceApril 07, 2022
Pope Francis speaks during the Way of the Cross outside the ancient Colosseum in Rome in this March 25, 2016, file photo. (CNS photo/Paul Haring)

VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- Pope Francis has asked several families to write the prayers and meditations for his Stations of the Cross service at Rome’s Colosseum on Good Friday.

The request comes during the year Pope Francis asked Catholics to dedicate to families and to a rereading of “Amoris Laetitia,” his exhortation on the family, which was published in 2016.

The authors of the texts to be used for the nighttime service April 15 are “families linked to Catholic volunteer and assistance communities and associations,” said Matteo Bruni, director of the Vatican press office.

The request comes during the year Pope Francis asked Catholics to dedicate to families and to a rereading of “Amoris Laetitia,” his exhortation on the family, which was published in 2016.

Families also will carry the cross between the stations at the Colosseum, he said. Those chosen will reflect the focus of each prayer and meditation -- for example, migrants and refugees or the elderly or those caring for a person with a disability.

In 2020 and 2021, the service was scaled down and held in St. Peter’s Square because of the COVID-19 pandemic, but the pope still used the prayers and meditations of special authors. In 2020, they were written by inmates at an Italian prison and in 2021 by Scouts and other children at a Rome parish.

The latest from america

Pope Leo XIV has appointed the French archbishop of Chambéry, Thibault Verny, as the new president of the Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors. He succeeds Cardinal Seán O’Malley, 81, the emeritus archbishop of Boston.
Gerard O’ConnellJuly 05, 2025
U.S. House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., speaks with other members of the House July 3, 2025, on Capitol Hill in Washington after final passage of U.S. President Donald Trump's sweeping spending and tax bill. (OSV News photo/Jonathan Ernst, Reuters)
“Deep cuts” to SNAP and Medicaid will “inflict real suffering on these families…. SNAP and Medicaid are not luxuries, they are lifelines for millions of children across our country.”
Kevin ClarkeJuly 03, 2025
It was one of the first times Leo has spoken unscripted at length in public, responding to questions posed to him by the children.
The Vatican has named the judges that will preside over the trial of disgraced Father Marko Rupnik.