In his first Way of the Cross as the head of the Catholic Church, Pope Leo XIV chose to carry a cross around to the 14 stations, which was uncommon but not unprecedented.

In the shadow of a world scarred by conflicts, the Pope led the Vatican’s traditional Way of the Cross service on Good Friday, praying that God would raise up those oppressed by war, economic exploitation, and personal crisis.

In his first Way of the Cross as the head of the Catholic Church, Pope Leo XIV chose to carry a cross around to the 14 stations, which was uncommon but not unprecedented.

In the shadow of a world scarred by conflicts, the Pope led the Vatican’s traditional Way of the Cross service on Good Friday, praying that God would raise up those oppressed by war, economic exploitation, and personal crisis.

“Every person in authority will have to answer to God for the way they exercise their power,” including the “power to start or end a war,” went one of the meditations read aloud for Leo’s first Way of the Cross as Pope.

Reflecting on the suffering of women worldwide at the eighth station, where Jesus met the women of Jerusalem, the meditation noted the challenges of women “tending to the wounded and comforting survivors in war zones and areas of conflict,” as well as those weeping for children “killed in war zones, and wiped out in death camps.”

When Jesus is stripped of his garments at the 10th station, the service reflected on “when authoritarian regimes force prisoners to remain half-naked in bare cells or courtyards” and “when rapists and abusers reduce their victims to mere objects; when the entertainment industry exploits nudity for the sake of profit.”

The meditations included reflections on those with “the power to use the economy to oppress people or to liberate them from misery.” The prayer was that Jesus would raise “those who are crushed to the ground by injustice, by falsehood, by every form of exploitation and violence, and by the misery produced by an economy that seeks individual profit rather than the common good.”

Flanked by two laypeople bearing burning torches, the Pope moved in procession through the interior of the Colosseum for the opening stations before emerging into the night and ascending a staircase, cross in hand, to the ancient Temple of Venus and Rome, where he paused beneath a towering cross lit with candles.

Previous popes had entrusted the task of writing the meditations to prominent clergy, groups of laypeople, and members of marginalized groups. Leo’s choice of a Franciscan friar this year gave the stations a distinctly Franciscan flavor, pairing each Gospel reading with texts from St. Francis of Assisi, whose 800th death anniversary is marked this year.

The Holy Land needs harmony

Among the 30,000 people in attendance at the poignant ceremony was Sarah, a Palestinian Catholic.

“We need peace in the Holy Land,” she said. “People like you and me listen, but the governments don’t. They still do whatever they want. They don’t listen. They promise and they don’t deliver,” the 61-year-old said.

Geryes Bejjani, a 33-year-old Lebanese man, said he had come with friends to “carry a message of peace and coexistence,” despite the difficulty of traveling from his homeland, which has been dragged into the war.

“The Pope is the only purely selfless political leader. There’s no hidden agenda, there’s no ambiguity in his message. And that’s his strength,” he said.

Find an ‘off ramp’

Leo, the first US-born pope, has repeatedly and ever more insistently called for peace in the Middle East and last week directly urged US President Donald Trump to find an “off ramp.”

“Hopefully he’s looking for a way to decrease the amount of violence, of bombing,” he said.

The United States and Israel sparked the war on 28 February by bombing Iran, which retaliated with strikes against Gulf states and placed an effective chokehold on the vital Strait of Hormuz.

“If only Trump would listen to anyone,” said Ines Duplessis, 29, who came from Paris to the Colosseum ceremony, where attendees held candles in a silence broken only by liturgical chants and recited prayers.

Nothing more than symbolic

“For me, it’s very symbolic, but nothing more,” she said of the Pope’s appeal.

“Sadly, everything is so driven by political and economic interests” that “it’s a bit of a lost cause,” she said.

On Sunday, Pope Leo will preside over Easter Mass in St. Peter’s Square before delivering a typically political blessing, which is especially anticipated this year.

On Friday, wearing his red mozzetta and stole, Leo appeared deep in prayer during the ceremony, listening with eyes closed.

Augustin Ancel, from Paris, said the Pope carrying the cross was “a powerful message.”

“It’s also a form of humility, because we naturally tend to see the Pope as distant, as someone in a very important role,” he said.