Ukraine war weighs on pope's Good Friday Colosseum ritual
ABC News
The war in Ukraine is looming over the traditional Good Friday Colosseum procession in Rome, after the Vatican's choice of a Russian woman to be among the cross-bearers angered Ukrainians
ROME -- The war in Ukraine loomed over the traditional Good Friday Colosseum procession in Rome, after the Vatican’s choice of a Russian woman to share bearing the cross with a Ukrainian woman had angered Ukrainians.
In an apparent attempt to defuse the objections, when the moment arrived for the two women, who work together at a Rome hospital, to walk with the cross together, the ceremony's participants were invited to pause in “prayerful silence” and pray in their heart for peace in the world.
The original script, written with the women's input, had spoken of prospects for “reconciliation." That wording had sparked protests by both the Ukrainian ambassador to the Holy See and a Kyiv archbishop.
They objected to projecting what they saw as the idea of reconciliation while Ukraine is ravaged by war unleashed by Russia.
