Colosseum Via Crucis to focus on persecuted Christians in India
Archbishop Thomas Menamparampil SDB of Guwahati, India, has been given the task of writing the meditations for this year's Via Crucis (Way of the Cross), which is due to be presided over by Pope Benedict on the evening of Good Friday 10 April at the Colosseum in Rome. Archbishop Menamparampil's reflections will focus on the question of evil in the world, on pain and on the various forms of suffering which are, he writes, a "symbol of the presence of the cross of Christ in our lives". In this context, he will also refer to Christians who suffer persecution in India and in other countries, as well as to "the violence that destroys ethnic and religious groups, and to conflicts fuelled by economic interests". This will be the second year in which the meditations have drawn attention to the continent of Asia. The persecutions the Catholic Church faces in various part of the world were also the central theme of the Via Crucis in 2008, written by Cardinal Joseph Zen Ze-kiun SDB, bishop of Hong Kong, China. Source: VIS