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The Pieta Book very clearly states the conditions for gaining the indulgences of performing the Via Crucis or Stations of the Cross. It is important to note that the Lamb of God was slain upon the cross. The cross of wood became the sacrificial altar on which Jesus gave up His life for us sinners. When Jesus traveled to Calvary carrying His heavy wooden cross, one might speculate that splinters from the cross embedded in his back -- raw from the scourging at the pillar. The Pieta Book mentions about the wound in Jesus' shoulder that the cross dug into...

Pope Benedict XVI led a torchlit procession at Rome's Colosseum on Good Friday, the most sombre day of the Christian calendar commemorating Christ's crucifixion, as tens of thousands of pilgrims looked on. Holding flickering candles cupped in coloured paper, they massed around the ancient Roman arena as the 79-year-old leader of the world's 1.1 billion Roman Catholics carried a simple cross during the first and last portions of the Way of the Cross procession. At the end, the pope addressed the throng, standing beside a giant cross made up of dozens of flaming candles that had overlooked the solemn observance...

VATICAN CITY, FEB. 23, 2007 (Zenit.org).- The text for this Good Friday's Way of the Cross at the Colosseum has been written by Monsignor Gianfranco Ravasi, an Italian biblicist. The news was published in a press statement sent by the Vatican Publishing House. The text will guide the meditation of tens of thousands of pilgrims, who will participate in the ceremony on Good Friday. Benedict XVI will preside. Gianfranco Ravasi was born in 1942, and was ordained a priest of the Diocese of Milan in 1966. He is prefect of Milan's Ambrosian Library, a professor of biblical exegesis at the...

Excerpts from (then) Cardinal Ratzinger's Meditations and Prayers for the Stations of the Cross at the Roman Colosseum, Good Friday 2005: The First Station: Jesus is condemned to death: (Meditation) [J]ustice is trampled underfoot by weakness, cowardice and fear of the diktat of the ruling mindset. The quiet voice of conscience is drowned out by the cries of the crowd. Evil draws its power from indecision and concern for what other people think. (Prayer) How many times have we ourselves preferred success to the truth, our reputation to justice? Strengthen the quiet voice of our conscience, your own voice, in...