Pontiff Carries Cross in Good Friday Rites

Pope John Paul II carried a 6-foot wooden cross through the ancient Roman Colosseum on Friday night in a torchlight “Way of the Cross” procession recalling the suffering and death of Jesus.

A similar observance was held in the Old City of Jerusalem under heavy Israeli security that was prompted by the wave of Arab protests against the Israeli occupation of the West Bank and Gaza Strip.

In Italy, thousands of pilgrims holding candles gathered around the Colosseum in chilly weather for the Good Friday service, which was televised live by Eurovision.

The pontiff, wearing red and white vestments, held the lightweight cross close to his face as he led a procession of priests through the Colosseum to the Capitoline Hill.

Two youths, a student and a worker, in dark suits walked on either side of the Pope carrying tall candles. Roman torches and candles in the shape of a cross flickered from the arches of the amphitheater built by the Emperor Vespasian in the century of Christ’s death.

John Paul paused to pray, resting the cross against his brow, at each of the 14 stages of Christ’s suffering, from his condemnation to death by Pontius Pilate through his Crucifixion and burial outside the walls of Jerusalem’s Old City.

In a brief sermon, the pontiff said the suffering of the Virgin Mary as she stood beneath the cross “unites the mother to her son as only the immaculate mother could be united with the son of God on the cross.”

Earlier in the day, John Paul prayed for the redemption of the Jews at a solemn service in St. Peter’s Basilica.

Twenty cardinals and scores of archbishops and bishops joined John Paul in the “celebration of the Passion” Friday before about 10,000 worshipers.

Prayers were read in Russian for those about to be received into the church, in German for Christian unity, in Hindu for non-Christians and in Portuguese for the Jews.

The prayer for the Jews asked that “the Lord who once spoke to their fathers might help them to progress always in love of his name and faithful to his alliance” with man.

Speaking in Latin, the Pope said he prayed to God “that the first-born people of your alliance may arrive at the fullness of the redemption.”

Catholic teaching holds that man was created in a state of original sin, but that Christ, by dying on the cross, paid the price for man’s redemption. Christian teachings hold that Jesus arose from the dead on the third day after his Crucifixion, the event celebrated on Easter Sunday.

The Good Friday services in Jerusalem came as Jews began celebrating Passover, commemorating the flight of the Jews from Egypt.

Hundreds of police, many with submachine guns or tear gas launchers, were stationed along the Via Dolorosa, a winding route through the narrow streets of the Old City that, according to Christian tradition, follows Jesus’ path from the spot where he was condemned to death to his Crucifixion site.

There were no disturbances during the Christian processions, but at the Lion’s Gate, a few hundred yards from the start of the Via Dolorosa, a worshiper leaving Muslim Sabbath prayers on the Temple Mount stabbed a policeman, slightly wounding the officer, a police spokesman said. The assailant was arrested.