Pope asks prison community to compose Via Crucis meditations

VATICAN CITY — Pope Francis has asked the prisoners, guards and the chaplain of a northern Italian prison to write this year’s Way of the Cross meditations.

In a letter published in the Italian newspaper Il Mattino di Padova March 10, the pope said he chose the parish community of the Due Palazzi prison in Padua so that the meditations would reflect on the lives of those involved in the prison system, including “the victim, the prisoner, the prison officer, the volunteer, the family of those detained, probation officers, the church, and the innocent person who, at times, is unjustly accused.

The prison is a kaleidoscope of situations, and there is always a big risk in telling a detail to the detriment of the whole” system, he said. “The resurrection of a person is never the work of an individual, but of a community walking together.”

Each year, the pope asks a different person to write the commentary and prayers for the Way of the Cross. The evening service will take place April 10, Good Friday, at Rome’s Colosseum.

The pope said he chose to announce his choice for the meditations in the local newspaper of Padua because he wanted the announcement “to be a caress to the suffering of these days.”

The Vatican office that distributes free tickets to papal events has posted a notice on its website that “the liturgical celebrations of Holy Week will take place without the physical presence of the faithful.”