Vatican City
Reuters
The Vatican’s decision to have both Ukrainians and Russians take part in Pope Francis’ “Way of the Cross” procession on Friday has caused friction with Ukrainian Catholic leaders, who want it to be reconsidered.
The annual Via Crucis event on Good Friday at the Colosseum consists of the 14 Stations of the Cross, stages between the condemnation of Jesus to death and his burial. It is often customised so that those who carry the cross from one station to the next reflect world events.
People take part in the Via Crucis (Way of the Cross) procession led by Pope Francis during Good Friday celebrations at Rome’s Colosseum, Rome, Italy on 19th April, 2019. PICTURE: Reuters/Remo Casilli/File photo.
This year’s programme for the evening candlelight service has a Ukrainian family and a Russian family sharing the carrying of the cross at the 13th station, which commemorates Jesus being taken down from the cross after his death.
“I consider such an idea inopportune, ambiguous, and such that it does not take into account the context of Russia’s military aggression against Ukraine,” said Major Archbishop Sviatoslav Shevchuk, head of Ukraine’s Byzantine-rite Catholic Church.
The text of the meditation to be read at the 13th station speaks of reconciliation and reconstruction after bombings.
“Offensive text”
Shevchuk, who is in Kyiv and has invited the Pope to visit the Ukrainian capital, said in a statement on Tuesday that the text was “incoherent and even offensive, especially in the context of the expected second, even bloodier attack of Russian troops on our cities and villages”.
He said he had asked the Vatican to review the decision.
In an accompanying statement, Shevchuk’s Rome office said many Ukrainians were “convinced that gestures of reconciliation between our peoples will be possible only when the war is over and those guilty of crimes against humanity are justly condemned”.
In a tweet, Ukraine’s ambassador to the Vatican, Andrii Yurash, said he shared Shevchuck’s concern and was working with the Vatican on “trying to explain difficulties of its realisation and possible consequences”.
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Meanwhile AP report that in response to the criticism, Rev Antonio Spadaro, a Jesuit priest in Rome who is close to Francis, defended the pairing of a Russian and a Ukrainian woman for the solemn procession.
“You have to understand one thing” about the Pope, Spadaro told Italian state radio network RAI on Wednesday. “He’s a pastor, not a politician.”
Spadaro ventured that the image of the two women carrying the cross together was upsetting “because they represent something that can’t be obtained” now – “peace.”
Since the war began, Francis has only mentioned Russia explicitly in prayers, such as during a special global event for peace on 25th March. But he has made clear his opposition to Russia’s actions, using the words invasion, aggression and atrocities.
Moscow calls it actions in Ukraine a “special military operation” designed not to occupy territory but to demilitarise and “denazify” the country.
The Kremlin says allegations that Russian forces have committed war crimes by executing civilians in Ukraine were a “monstrous forgery” aimed at denigrating the Russian army.
Most Russians and Ukrainians are Orthodox Christians and this year will mark Easter a week later than Western churches.
