The Holy Father carried the cross at the Roman amphitheater on Good Friday, the first time a pope has done so in several years. 

Pope Leo XIV urged the faithful to “live our lives as a journey” and prayed for the Church to “follow in the footprints” of Christ as he walked the Via Crucis on April 3.

The pope personally carried the cross through every station of the Good Friday Way of the Cross at the Colosseum, the first time in four years the figure of the Supreme Pontiff has been present at the amphitheater. 

Due to health concerns, Pope Francis last participated in person at the Colosseum in 2022, appearing via video after that. 

Leo told media earlier in the week that the event “will be an important sign, given what the pope represents: a spiritual leader in today’s world — a voice to proclaim that Christ still suffers.” 

“And I, too, carry all of this suffering in my prayers,” the pope said. 

The Via Crucis meditations for 2026 were written by Father Francesco Patton, the former Custos of the Holy Land. The reflections noted that “every authority must answer before God for the manner in which it exercises the power it has received,” including “the power to initiate a war or to end it” and “the power to trample upon human dignity or to safeguard it.” 

“Each one of us, too, is called to answer for the power we exercise in our daily lives,” the meditations said. 

At the conclusion of the Way of the Cross, the pope quoted Saint Francis of Assisi in praying that God would “give us miserable ones the grace to do for you alone what we know you want us to do and always to desire what pleases you.”

“Inwardly cleansed, interiorly enlightened and inflamed by the fire of the Holy Spirit, may we be able to follow in the footprints of your beloved Son, our Lord Jesus Christ,” the pope prayed. 

This story was originally published by ACI Stampa, EWTN News’ Italian-language partner agency. It has been translated and adapted by EWTN News English.