Pope Leo XIV carried a wooden cross for all 14 stations of the Way of the Cross at the Colosseum on his first Good Friday as pontiff, the first pope to do so in decades.
“I think it will be an important sign because of what the pope represents, a spiritual leader in the world today, and for this voice, that everyone wants to hear, that says Christ still suffers,” Leo told reporters outside the papal retreat at Castel Gandolfo. “I carry all of this suffering in my prayer.”
Inside the Colosseum, Leo lifted a lightweight, roughly 1.5-meter (5-foot) wooden cross and began the torchlit rite flanked by two torchbearers. The hourlong procession moved from inside the Colosseum, through the crowd outside and up steep stairs to the Palatine Hill, where he gave the final blessing.
The meditation prepared for the first station, marking Jesus’ condemnation, stressed that those in authority will answer to God for how they use their power. “The power to judge; the power to start or end a war; the power to instill violence or peace; the power to fuel the desire for revenge, or for reconciliation,” read the reflection written by Rev. Francesco Patton, custodian of the Holy Land from 2016 to 2025, who was charged with looking after sacred sites.
Some 30,000 faithful followed the stations as they were recited over loudspeakers outside the ancient monument. Among them was Sister Pelenatita Kieoma Finau from Samoa, a member of the Missionary Sisters of the Society of Mary, who said participating with the people of Rome was deeply meaningful.
John Paul II carried the cross for the entire Via Crucis from his first Good Friday as pope in 1979 until hip surgery in 1995, when he carried it only partway. Benedict XVI carried the cross for the first station during the opening inside the Colosseum in the first two years of his papacy, then followed other bearers for the rest of the procession. Pope Francis never carried the cross and, after his health worsened, participated less; he died after a long illness last year on Easter Monday, April 21.
John Paul II was 58 when he became pope and was known as a hiker and outdoorsman. His two successors were in their late 70s when they began their papacies, and Francis had lost part of a lung to a pulmonary infection as a young man.
The Way of the Cross commemorates the final hours of Jesus’ life—from his death sentence to taking up the cross, crucifixion, death and burial—and concludes on a platform atop the Palatine Hill.
At 70, Pope Leo is physically fit, an avid tennis player and swimmer. Before becoming pope he trained regularly at a gym near the Vatican, following a regimen described by his former trainer as fit for a man in his early 50s.
On Holy Saturday, the pontiff will preside over a late-night Easter vigil during which he will baptize new Catholics. On Easter Sunday he will celebrate an open-air Mass in St. Peter’s Square, deliver his Easter message and offer the traditional Urbi et Orbi blessing to the city of Rome and the world.