Papal Stations of the Cross event refers to modern-day persecution

Shabaz Bhatti, the Pakistani Catholic politician assassinated by Taliban activists in March 2011, partly because of his criticism of Pakistan’s blasphemy laws, was recalled during last night’s Via Crucis ceremony at the Colosseum in Rome.

Giving the meditations that accompanied the Stations of the Cross, Bishop of Novara Renato Corti made reference to the Pakistani politician at the second station.

“Even today there are men and women who are imprisoned, convicted and indeed slaughtered just because they are believers or because they are working for justice and peace,” he said. “These people are not ashamed of your cross. For us, they are wonderful examples to be imitated.”

14 stations

A huge crowd attended the Via Crucis, the traditional Good Friday ceremony that commemorates the passion and death of Jesus Christ through the reading of prayers along a “Via Dolorosa” of 14 stations.

Pope Francis presided over the ceremony for the third time, while the cross was carried by nuns, priests and lay faithful representing Iraqi, Nigerian, Chinese and Syrian Catholics.

Also among those carrying the cross were an Italian family with six children, an Italian family with two adopted Brazilian children, and an Italian family with children from two different marriages.

"Oh Jesus, how much sorrow is there in the depths of many souls, wounded by solitude, by abandonment, by indifference, by sickness or by the death of someone dear," said Bishop Corti at the seventh station.

Later, at the 13th station, he quoted his mentor, the late cardinal of Milan, Carlo Maria Martini: "In You oh Jesus – the word made flesh – we are called to the Church of mercy. In You – who chose to be poor – the Church is called to be both poor and a friend to the poor."

The pope’s Via Crucis came just 24 hours after a moving encounter with inmates of Rome’s Rebibbia prison, during which he washed the feet of 12 prisoners “in place of all of you” and called on the prisoners to pray for him “so that God will wash away my filth”.

Earlier in the day, in a message to the archbishop of Nairobi, the pope expressed his deep sadness “at the immense and tragic loss of life” from Thursday’s student massacre on the campus of Garissa University, in which 147 people were killed.