After two years canceled by the pandemic, the Pope’s way of the cross has returned this Good Friday to the Colosseum, a symbol of the persecution of the first Christians, in which it is the most symbolic and massive rite of Roman Easter. However, the Vatican has received harsh criticism from Ukrainian representatives in what might be defined as a major diplomatic stumble. Ukrainian Catholic media have even boycotted it and refused to broadcast the ceremony.
In a symbol of reconciliation, two women, one Russian and one Ukrainian, have carried the cross together at one of the stations that represent the path to death of Jesus of Nazareth. The two protagonists are two young women, the Ukrainian, Irina, a nurse at the Fondazione Policlinico Universitario Campus Bio-Medico in Rome, and the Russian, Albina, a nursing student on the same campus. They became friends on the hospice ward. When the war started, their friendship grew stronger. “I always get emotional when I remember that Albina started apologizing to me. At that time she was really heartbroken ”, Irina has told l ‘Roman Observer, the official newspaper of the Vatican.
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However, what for some is a lesson for others has been a stumble by the Holy See. This is the opinion of the Greek Catholic Archbishop of Ukraine, Sviatoslav Shevchuk, who has considered it an “inopportune idea” and “ambiguous”. “The texts and gestures of station XIII of this way of the cross are incomprehensible and even offensive,” he said. Ukraine’s ambassador to the Vatican, Andrii Yurash, has said that he “understands and shares the general concern in Ukraine and in many other communities regarding the idea of uniting Ukrainian and Russian women.”
Even the apostolic nuncio (ambassador) of the Vatican in Ukraine, Archbishop Visvaldas Kulbokas, has admitted that he would have organized the prayer in a different way. “Reconciliation must come when the aggression stops. When the Ukrainians are able not only to save their lives, but also their freedom. And, of course, we know that reconciliation occurs when the aggressor admits his guilt and apologizes, ”he considered. In Ukraine, Catholic media such as Radio Maria or EWTN Ukraine have decided not to broadcast the event as a sign of protest.
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In the end, the Vatican has decided to maintain the participation of the two women, but in the face of protests it has changed the text of station XIII, the one starring Irina and Albina, to reduce it to a minimum. The speaker limited himself to saying that “in the face of death, silence is the most eloquent of words.” A deathly silence has been imposed among the 10,000 people who have come to the Colosseum. Meanwhile, the two women looked at each other, excited, holding the cross. The Pontiff prayed covering his face.
Francis has repeatedly condemned the atrocities of the war in Ukraine and has implicitly criticized Vladimir Putin, but so far he has not directly attacked the Russian president or Putin as the aggressor in order to keep the bridges of dialogue open. He has also offered to be a mediator in the conflict and to go personally to Kyiv, if his presence might be useful.
The one who is already in Ukraine is Cardinal Konrad Krajewski, the Pope’s beggar, who has celebrated a way of the cross in the Ukrainian cities of Bucha and Bordjanka to personally bring the solidarity of the Vatican to these two “martyr cities”. Krajewski arrived in Kyiv on Thursday driving an ambulance that the Pontiff has given to this city.
