Pope Francis used a Good Friday ceremony to decry \u201call the crosses\u201d of suffering in the world, including those borne by migrants who find doors closed due to \u201cpolitical calculations\u201d and children who are harmed in their \u201cinnocence and purity,\u201d in a reference to paedophile clergy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
From\n a canopied platform on the Palatine Hill, Francis watched the \ntraditional torch-lit, night-time procession at Rome\u2019s Colosseum that \nsolemnly recalled the crucifixion of Jesus.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Then he touched on \ntwo issues heavily marking his papacy how to promote the cause of often \nrejected migrants and to deal with a sea of scandals over Catholic \nclergy\u2019s sexual abuse of children.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Francis said migrants \u201cfind \ndoors closed because of fear and hearts hardened by political \ncalculations.\u201d He also decried the \u201ccross of the little ones, wounded in\n their innocence and their purity.\u201d Francis didn\u2019t directly cite the \nchurch scandals.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Along with thousands of pilgrims, tourists and \nRomans, he listened to reflections that were composed by an elderly \nItalian nun, who for 25 years has gone out to the city\u2019s streets to \nbring comfort and hope to migrant women who were trafficked into \nprostitution.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Francis prayed to Jesus to help \u201cus to see in your \ncross all the crosses of the world.\u201d The pope cited persons starved for \nfood and for love, and those \u201cabandoned\u201d even by their own children or \nparents.The nun, Eugenia Bonetti, who works with many Nigerian women and\n other migrants who have fallen prey to human traffickers, spoke with \nFrancis just before the start of the procession.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In one of her \nmeditations, read aloud as the faithful listened in utter silence, \nBonetti said that \u201cit is easy to wear a crucifix on a chain around our \nneck or to use it to decorate the walls of our beautiful cathedrals or \nhomes.\u201d Less easy is acknowledging \u201ctoday\u2019s newly crucified:\u201d the \nhomeless, unemployed youth, \u201cimmigrants relegated to slums at the fringe\n of our societies after having endured untold suffering,\u201d the nun said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Populist\n leaders in Italy and several other European countries have taken to \nholding a hard line against migrants, refusing to accept those rescued \nat sea from traffickers\u2019 unseaworthy boats. The US administration of \nDonald Trump is also determined to keep out illegal migrants.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Among\n those taking turns carrying a lightweight cross in the procession were a\n Nigerian woman and her daughter.In his brief comments, expressed in the\n form of a prayer, Francis also spoke of the \u201ccross of the church,\u201d \nwhich he said \u201cfeels continuously under assault from the inside and the \noutside.\u201d \n\n<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Pope Francis used a Good Friday ceremony to decry \u201call the crosses\u201d of suffering in the world, including those borne by migrants who find doors closed due to \u201cpolitical calculations\u201d and children who are harmed in their \u201cinnocence and purity,\u201d in a reference to paedophile clergy. From a canopied platform on the Palatine Hill, Francis […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":59554,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[87],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-59553","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-world"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/59553","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=59553"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/59553\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":59555,"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/59553\/revisions\/59555"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/59554"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=59553"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=59553"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=59553"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}