Photo: VINCENZO PINTO / AFP / Getty Images
The Vatican’s choice to choose a Russian woman to be among the bearers of the cross infuriated the Ukrainian authorities, but despite their denunciation, this Friday, the Russian woman carried the cross for part of the procession, along with a Ukrainian woman.
The participants in the procession took turns carrying a simple, tall, slender cross.
Faithful in the world applauded the decision to match the two women to carry the cross during part of the procession, which recalls the suffering of Jesus as he was being led to his crucifixion and death.
Ukrainian nuisance was exposed earlier this week, when Ukraine’s ambassador to the Holy See and the Archbishop of kyiv denounced the Vatican’s plan to have both Ukrainian and Russian women carry the cross together during the procession.
These authorities opposed projecting what they saw as the idea of reconciliation while Ukraine is devastated by the war unleashed by Russia.
The women were identified only by name in interviews on Italian state television Rai: Irina, a nurse from Ukraine, and Albina, a Russian nursing student. They are friends and work together in a hospital in Rome.
Before the procession, Albina told Rai that it was important to “pray for the children who are no longer here, for the soldiers who lost their lives and cannot even be buried”.
For her part, Irina described the fact of sharing the burden of the cross as a “great responsibility”.
Pope Francis, in an interview broadcast Friday on Italian state television, said he understood governments buying weapons. “I don’t justify them, but I understand them, because we have to defend ourselves. If there were a pattern of peace, this would not be necessary. But we live with this diabolical pattern of killing each other for the desire for power, the desire for security, the I wish for many things”, he added.
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