For two years in a row, Pope Benedict XVI has turned to Asia for the Way of the Cross which he will lead on Good Friday, April 10, in the Roman Colosseum.“This year he asked Salesian Archbishop Thomas Menamparampil of Guwahati, Assam (to prepare the Way of the Cross),” says a Vatican expert.
Last year, Salesian Cardinal Joseph Zen of Hong Kong prepared the traditional 14 Stations of the Cross.
“These past years the pope, in solidarity with the suffering Christians, has called on Church leaders from persecuted Churches to prepare meditations and prayers to be used at the Good Friday devotion which the Pope will personally preside to mark the suffering and death of Jesus,” says the senior Vatican expert.
“It was in this context that both Cardinal Zen and Archbishop Menamparampil were chosen for the task,” he explains.
While Cardinal Zen continues to be an outspoken voice for human rights demanding freedom to profess Christian faith in mainland China, Archbishop Menamparampil is engaged in conflict resolution, five times now, restoring peace between warring ethnic groups in northeast India over 12 years. He is also spearheading a movement of eminent citizens for ‘Probity in Public Life’ in the Northeast.
Persecuted Christians Archbishop Menamparampil, away on a pastoral visit, was not available to comment on the Via Crucis theme that he has submitted to the master of the liturgical celebrations Bishop Piero Marini.
A member of several Vatican commissions, the soft-spoken, popular author and speaker, Archbishop Menamparampil must have written on the sufferings of the millions of Dalits, thousands of persecuted and oppressed people in Orissa, Congo and Sudan, who are denied their rights and human dignity.
The 72-year-old archbishop is also chairman of the Federation of Asian Bishop’s Conference Commission for Evangelisation.
Scriptural Way of the Cross
Pope John Paul II introduced a new form of the via crucis, called the Scriptural Way of the Cross on Good Friday 1991.
The 14 stations, as on other occasions in recent years, follow a strictly biblical outline, based on texts drawn mainly from the Gospel of St. Mark.
They follow this sequence:1. Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane; 2. Jesus is betrayed by Judas and arrested; 3. Jesus is condemned by the Sanhedrin; 4. Jesus is denied by Peter; 5. Jesus is judged by Pilate; 6. Jesus is scourged and crowned with thorns; 7. Jesus takes up his cross; 8. Jesus is helped by Simon to carry his cross; 9. Jesus meets the women of Jerusalem; 10. Jesus is crucified; 11. Jesus promises his kingdom to the good thief; 12. Jesus entrusts Mary and John to each other; 13. Jesus dies on the cross; and 14. Jesus is laid in the tomb.
Historical background
Each year, the Christian community of Rome, together with great numbers of pilgrims from around the world, gathers with the Successor of Peter at the Colosseum on Good Friday (9.15 pm), for the traditional devotion of the Stations of the Cross.
Millions of the faithful take part through television in this moment of contemplation and prayer. The city of Rome and the world are in a sense united around the mystery of the passion and death of the Lord, the re-enactment of which is marked by readings from the Bible, prayers, meditations and songs. The way of the cross winds from inside the Colosseum which witnessed the death of many Christian martyrs under the Roman Emperors to the slopes of the Palatine Hill.
From the earliest days, followers of Jesus told the story of his passion, death and resurrection.
The stations, as we know them today, came about when it was no longer easy to visit the holy sites.
In the 1500’s, villages all over Europe started creating replicas of the way of the cross, with small shrines commemorating the places along the route in Jerusalem.
Eventually, these shrines became the set of 14 stations we now know and were placed in almost every Catholic Church in the world.
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