The Papal Via Crucis: The Ashes of Empire and the Phoenix of the Church

Two weeks ago, for the first time since 2019, Pope Francis presided over the Good Friday Via Crucis procession at the Colosseum. The tradition of a papal Via Crucis in the ruins of the Flavian Amphitheatre was instituted by Benedict XIV for the Holy Year of 1750. In 1870 the tradition was halted when Rome fell from papal control, Pius IX retreated within the walls of the Vatican, and a vehemently secular government embarked on an enthusiastic archeological project which stripped away many of the post-Imperial ecclesiastical accretions. In 1959 John XIII resumed the tradition, though only for that year, and it was only re-established as an annual tradition in 1965 during the papacy of Paul VI when for the first time it was broadcast by the RAI.

Pope Francis before the great niche of the Temple of Venus. Good Friday 2022 (Image from RAI)