Pope Prays for Victims of War, Hate, Terror on Good Friday

Iraqi families helped ailing Pope John Paul II carry the cross in the traditional Good Friday procession as the pontiff asked God to bless “victims of hate, war and terrorism.”

Thousands of flickering candles held by the faithful lit up the procession around the Roman Colosseum, and the 82-year-old pontiff thanked God that he could once again preside over Christianity’s most sorrowful day.

John Paul asked God to “look upon the blood shed by so many victims of hate, war and terrorism and kindly permit that the course of world events plays out according to your will in justice and peace.”

Until two years ago, John Paul carried the tall wooden cross for the entire half-mile procession, an event that symbolizes Christ’s path to his crucifixion. He remained seated Friday, relying on others to shoulder the burden.

At one point, an Iraqi mother and her daughter carried the wooden cross for several yards. The two, who declined to give their names, told reporters they fled Baghdad several months ago so that the woman’s husband wouldn’t have to fight for Saddam Hussein.

Later, the cross was passed to the pontiff by an Iraqi couple who have lived in Italy for several years.

Before the Iraq war, John Paul repeatedly expressed opposition to the conflict and since has voiced concern for the victims.

Others selected to carry the cross included the widow and son of Carlo Urbani, the World Health Organization doctor from Italy who first alerted the world to the existence of severe acute respiratory syndrome, or SARS, in Hanoi, and then died from the illness March 29.

Without naming any country, John Paul recalled in his speech the “deaths from hunger and hardship of thousands of innocent adults and children, to the insult of human dignity, unfortunately perpetrated sometimes in the name of God.”

John Paul said that it was apt that the procession was held at the Colosseum, “a symbol of times past of this great Roman Empire which collapsed, and the Christian martyrs” who gave their lives for the faith in the ancient arena.

Earlier in the day, the pope heard the confessions of 10 Catholics in St. Peter’s Basilica, keeping up a tradition in a Holy Week tinged by his concern for victims of the Iraqi war.