Despite criticism from Ukraine, the Pope has stuck to a controversial gesture at the Stations of the Cross on Good Friday evening.
As announced in the program, a Ukrainian and a Russian carried the simple wooden cross together at one stage of the prayer service in front of the Colosseum.
They live in Rome, work in nursing and are friends.
However, the previously published text on the 13th Station of the Cross has been replaced by a shorter one.
The shorter version of the text now presented read: “In the face of death, silence speaks louder than words.
So let us stand in prayerful silence and let us all pray in our hearts for peace in the world.”
In the days before, the Ukrainian ambassador to the Vatican and the Greek Catholic Archbishop of Kyiv had criticized the design as a premature gesture of reconciliation.
In protest, several Catholic media in Ukraine announced that they would not broadcast the Stations of the Cross live from Rome as usual.
Kiev's Grand Archbishop Svyatoslav Shevchuk was quoted as saying: "First we must stop killing each other, then we can talk about next steps."
For the first time in two years, the traditional Stations of the Cross with the Pope took place in front of the Roman Colosseum.
Around 10,000 people came to think about the suffering and death of Jesus Christ with Pope Francis.
Before that, the corona pandemic had prevented such a large gathering.
Pope Paul VI had the custom of praying the Way of the Cross in the Colosseum on Good Friday.
reintroduced in the 1960s.
From early evening, thousands of oil lamps illuminated the facade and vault of the ancient battle arena.
The first five Stations of the Cross are prayed in its vaults, after which the procession moves in the direction of the Roman Forum.
The Pope sits on the hill in front of the former Venus Temple.
He listens thoughtfully to what young married couples, childless and widowers are saying.
From families with a need for care, adopted children or a disabled child whose parents decided against an abortion.
Francis wanted families to be the authors of the meditations on the Way of the Cross because in June the “Amoris laetitia family year” he proclaimed will come to an end.
For Pope Francis, however, the war in Ukraine and the numerous other conflicts in the world are the result of a general turning away from peace.
"We live according to a scheme in which we kill ourselves, because of the desire for power, for security, for many things," said the head of the Catholic Church in a TV interview broadcast on Good Friday by Italian channel Rai 1. "I understand governments to buy arms.
I understand them, but I don't condone them," said Francis.
Since the beginning of the war in Ukraine, the pontiff has repeatedly criticized the use of weapons and advocated a diplomatic solution.
"If we lived in a system of peace, this would not be necessary," he said in the interview.
He also recalled “the hidden wars that cannot be seen, that are far away from us.
We have forgotten the language of peace.” It is always the weakest who suffer in wars, as the Argentine emphasized.
With regard to the refugees, he criticized that not all are treated equally.
“The refugees are divided.
First class, second class, by skin color, whether you're from a developed country or an undeveloped country.
We are racists, we are racists.
And that's bad," said the Pope.
Already in the afternoon, the Curia Cardinal Konrad Krajewski, who was sent by the Pope, prayed the Way of the Cross in the destroyed town of Borodjanka northwest of Kyiv.
He and the papal ambassador to Ukraine, Visvaldas Kulbokas, walked through the streets of the city.
They said prayers where there were still unburied dead and at a mass grave with at least 80 unknown dead.