During the papal Stations of the Cross service on Good Friday, broadcast around the world, marital infidelity will also be mentioned.
As a theologian and pastor, Joseph Ratzinger will combine statements of doctrinal principle and pastoral interest in the practical problems believers face in his sermon.
Proof of this will be the Stations of the Cross which Benedict XVI will use to describe the modern-day scourges of Catholicism on Friday, focusing on the wounds of humanity with particularly direct references and pertinent words on the daily lives of people living in a globalised third millennium.
‘How many family failures, how many separations, how many betrayals, as well as divorces, abortions and desertions.’
Then he will pray: ‘Jesus, help us to understand what love is, teach us to ask for forgiveness… Even families will have their crosses to bear if they want to follow Jesus, but in looking to Christ they will tackle life in a different way.’
Infidelity, that severs the promise to be faithful in marriage, misunderstandings, abortion, illness, the problem of educating children: these ‘crosses’, that can occur in every marriage, will be represented in the Colosseum’s Stations of the Cross service, held by the Pope on Good Friday, thanks to the meditations proposed (for the first time ever) by a specially chosen Catholic couple.
Other themes mentioned in the meditations will be a ‘warning not to remain indifferent when faced with the needs of one’s neighbour’ and ‘an invitation to resist being anaesthetised by wellbeing, and not to only seek what we want or what we like’.
The 14 Stations of the Cross, which will be read out on 6th April (announced today by Vatican Radio), will feature the problems that married couples face, as well as a warning not to remain indifferent when faced with the needs of one’s neighbour.
‘We too have added to your pain, we as spouses and our families. Every time we didn’t love each other, when we’ve blamed each other, when we haven’t forgiven each other, when we haven’t gone back to caring about each other’ is what the two spouses say in their meditation on Jesus as he takes up the Cross.
Among those sins that weaken human beings and make Christ’s cross heavier, the meditations this year will mention our yielding to the temptations of the world that often attract us with the ‘radiance of satisfaction’, the lack of respect for personal dignity, something that ‘nothing and no one should violate’ – be they male or female – in their private and personal space and in their own body.
In contrast, the sixth Station – Veronica wiping the face of Jesus – inspires us to recognise Christ in every brother and sister, in every newly conceived life and in the elderly.
The text of the meditations often repeats its appeal to each person’s conscience for a greater commitment when faced with evil and injustice, and not to close our eyes and remain indifferent when faced with the needs of others, whether due to weariness, lack of sensibility, egotism or fear.
As well as Christ’s Stations of the Cross, there’s the way of modern-day martyrs, those who suffer because the Church is still being persecuted.
Families are also invited to resist being anaesthetised by wellbeing, and not to seek just what they want or what they like.
Finally, Jesus’ greatest commandment: the gift of one’s life for love, a commandment many mothers have followed when during childbirth they have ‘faced death to give birth to their child’ and many others have followed by rejecting vengeance when faced with war or terrorism.
The last Station of the Cross opens the door of hope to Christians: Jesus is dead but has risen, ‘he lives forever and supports us in our earthly journey, amidst joys and tribulations’.