ROME (AP) — Pope Francis will skip the traditional Good Friday procession at Rome’s Colosseum to protect his health, a last-minute move that further heightens concerns about his frail condition during a particularly busy liturgical period. The Vatican announced that the decision had been taken.
Francis was scheduled to preside over the Stations of the Cross, a reenactment of the Passion and Crucifixion of Christ, and compose a meditative piece to be read at each station. But just as the event was about to begin, the Vatican announced that Francis would be watching the event from his home in the Vatican.
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“To protect his health in preparation for tomorrow’s wake and Easter Mass, Pope Francis will tonight retrace the Via crucifixes from Casa Santa Marta to the Colosseum,” the Vatican Press Office said in a statement.
Vatican ushers carry Pope Francis’ chair before the start of the Way of the Cross at the Colosseum on Good Friday, Friday, March 29, 2024 in Rome. (AP Photo/Gregorio Borgia)
Francis missed the event in 2023 because he was recovering from bronchitis and it was a particularly cold night, but his last-minute decision to stay home this year meant that St. John Paul II attended the event from the Apostolic Palace. It reminded me of the famous Good Friday when I watched over Friday. before he passed away in 2005.
Francis, 87, had part of one of his lungs removed when he was young and has been battling flu, bronchitis, or cold symptoms all winter, he and the Vatican have said. In recent weeks, he has occasionally asked his aides to read his speeches, missing his Palm Sunday sermon entirely.
The decision not to attend the Good Friday procession appears to have been very last minute. Francis’ chair was placed on the platform where he presided over the ceremony. His aide, Monsignor Leonardo Sapienza, was by his side and moved a television screen on the dais to give Francisco a better view of what was happening inside the Colosseum itself.
But at 9:10 p.m., five minutes before the procession officially began, the Vatican’s press office announced in a telegram that he would not appear. The chair was quickly taken away.
The hasty announcement came as Francis’ last-minute sermon on Palm Sunday, when the Vatican pre-released the pope’s sermon to journalists and made it clear that the pope would not read it. It reminded me of my decision.
Although Francis had cheerfully attended the Good Friday liturgy in St. Peter’s Basilica earlier in the day, he remained seated throughout and was reluctant to attend particularly taxing events that required him to speak for long periods of time. There wasn’t.
On Saturday, he will preside over the Long Night Easter Vigil in St. Peter’s Basilica, one of the most solemn events in the liturgical calendar. He will also preside over Easter Mass in the square and deliver his “Urbi et Orbi” (To the City and the World) address, summarizing the global crisis and threat to humanity.
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In addition to her respiratory illness, Francis had part of her colon removed in 2021 and was hospitalized twice last year, once due to a previous surgery to deal with diverticulosis, a bulge in the wall of her intestines. It was to remove scar tissue from the intestines.
In his recently published memoir, “Life: My Story Through History”, Francis says he has no health problems that would force him to step down and that he still has “many projects to realize.” said.
