Pope Leo
The pontiff carried the cross at all stations of the Way of the Cross on Good Friday in the Coliseum, the first time in four years that the figure of the Supreme Pontiff was present in the amphitheater. Due to health concerns, Pope Francis last participated in the Colosseum in person in 2022, appearing via video in the following years.
Leo
“And I also carry all this suffering in my prayers,” the pope said.
The 2026 Stations of the Cross meditations were written by Friar Francesco Patton, former Custodian of the Holy Land. The reflections highlighted that “every authority must answer to God for the way it exercises the power it has received”, including “the power to start a war or to put an end to it” and “the power to trample on human dignity or to protect it”.
“Each of us is also called to account for the power we wield in our everyday lives,” the meditations state.
At the end of the Way of the Cross, the pope quoted Saint Francis of Assisi when praying that God “grant us, us miserable ones, the grace to do for you only what we know you want us to do and to always desire what pleases you”.
©2026 Catholic News Agency. Published with permission. Original in English: At the Colosseum, Pope Leo XIV urges the faithful to ‘live our lives as a journey’ in Christ’s love.
