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POPE FRANCIS SKIPPED traditional Good Friday processions at the Colosseum in Rome, Italy last night in order to “conserve his health” ahead of other Easter services this weekend.
Francis was expected to preside over the Way of the Cross procession, which re-enacts Christ’s Passion and crucifixion, and composed the meditations that are read aloud at each station.
But just as the event was about to begin, the Vatican announced that Francis was following the event from his apartment in the city instead.
“To conserve his health in view of the vigil tomorrow and Mass on Easter Sunday, Pope Francis will follow the Via Crucis at the Colosseum this evening from the Casa Santa Marta,” a statement from the press office said.
The 87-year-old Francis, who had part of one lung removed as a young man, has been battling what he and the Vatican have described as a case of the flu, bronchitis or a cold all winter long.
For the last several weeks he has occasionally asked an aide to read aloud his speeches and skipped his Palm Sunday homily altogether.
The decision to not attend the Good Friday procession appeared to be very last-minute: Francis’ chair was in place on the platform where he was to preside over the rite.
His closest aide, Monsignor Leonardo Sapienza, was on hand and moved the television screen around on the platform so Francis would have a better view of what was going on inside the Colosseum itself.
But at 9.10pm, five minutes before the official start of the procession, the Vatican press office announced that he would not be taking part. The chair was quickly taken away.
The sudden announcement recalled Francis’ last-minute decision on Palm Sunday, when the Vatican issued the Pope’s homily in advance to journalists, and his aide got up to give him his glasses to read it, when Francis made clear he was skipping it.
It is the first time he had skipped the traditional, evocative event in his 11-year papacy, and recalled the Good Friday that St John Paul II famously watched from the Apostolic Palace just before he died in 2005.
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He’s an old man leave him alone.
@Mick McGuinness: He can always step down like his predecessor if he’s not up to the job.
@Mick McGuinness: Hey priests, leave those kids alone
@Modern Irish Dad: saving himself for a galaxy Easter egg on Sunday…..
Wishing Ill Papa the best of good health.
@Andrew Kenny: too late for that.
@Jack Hayes: Really…? Big man!
All religions are based on control by a privileged few to try in sure the masses stay in tune , But because I was brought up with empathy I wish the auld man a speedy recovery
@Robert Halvey: Religions, monarcy, government, civilised society…all are versions of what you’ve described.
Francis is temperamental, unpredictable and increasingly frail. He’s either on the way out, preparing to retire or about to be pushed!
@Louise Marie: You equate the autocratic poisonous control of religion to civilised society?
Civilisation is merely a set of mutually agreed rules that allow us to better live together.
Like that we all agree that one side of a road is reserved for travel in one direction, and the other for travel in the other direction.
That is very far from telling us what we can eat, and when. From telling us who we can live with, or have sex with. From telling us what we can say, and forbidding any criticism or even questioning (blasphemy).
Or from controlling any aspect of our lives officers of a religion may wish.
@Robert Halvey: True religion, outside the denominational structures, is the ability to be inspired and inspiring. Sometimes, people accept religion as a way to live life through its dictates, and there is always room for that level of consideration without being concerned about heaven or hell.
The Enlightenment subculture, where the perceptive side of religion/spirituality is rejected in favour of an ‘Age of Reason’ and mental issues, has created notions that humanity can control the weather/temperatures by doing or not doing something.
Now that is mind control!.
@Gerald Kelleher: you’re actually one of the Mayo Burkes, aren’t you?
@Gerald Kelleher: You’ve just made up your own definition of religion in the first sentence and it seems to me your definition is much closer to spirituality as opposed to religion. I am neither religious or spiritual but by using reasoning (what you seem consider a dirty word), perception and perspective I can see that although they are linked they are not one and the same. Spirituality does not require dogma, congregation or conformation which are a requirement for the adherents of the vast majority of religions.
@Diarmuid Hunt: Spirit/Inspiration is the only God I know.
“God is Spirit, and those who worship him must worship in Spirit and truth.” Jesus
The ability to understand with your head and reason (truth) is balanced with the ability to understand with your heart and perception (Spirit).
The Age of Reason, through a manifesto, tried to exclude the perceptive abilities, so although you are spiritual, whether you like it or not, you choose to live with rules of reasoning inherited from the Enlightenment subculture. People who deny the ability to be inspired and inspiring cut out all that is good in creation.
As the true Christians say, God known by the understanding of the heart is not the same as God guessed at by the brain.
@Gerald Kelleher: What I see you saying is that facts can be based on feelings, your well within your rights to believe this I just find it a strange position to hold. We’ll never know whether a spirit realm or afterlife exists and I can envisage a possibility of there being one but I don’t see how it is impacted by our understandings of time and climate as your constant diatribes continuously state.
@Diarmuid Hunt: The mathematical mind without perceptive abilities mistakes timekeeping for Time, two very different things.
Time, Eternity, and Life have the same perception as we pass through existence and pick up the Eternal creation that was here before our physical presence and exists when our physical journey ends.
Before Newton wrote his rules of reasoning manifesto for the mathematical mind, Pascal, another mathematician, wrote about the balance between the mathematical and perceptive faculties.
apuritansmind.com/puritan-favorites/blaise-pascal-1623-1662/pensees-section-1-thoughts-on-mind-and-style/
The mathematical mind says street noise and majestic music are sound;however the perceptive person distinguishes between the two.
@Gerald Kelleher: Can you explain the difference between, capital ‘T’, Time and timekeeping to me?
Get Well Soon Papa Francis .
“Should we not just have a bit of an old pray? Maybe God will help us and…”
“Annnnnyway…”
Is there anything to be said for another mass
Rome hides from you again. “We claim England to be a monster, Rome; you truly are the beast.”
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