“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,” the Vatican press office said in a statement.
While Francis had also skipped the event in 2023 because he was recovering from bronchitis,and it was a particularly cold night,his last-minute decision to stay home this year recalled the Good Friday that St John Paul II famously watched from the Apostolic Palace just before hedied in 2005.
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 on Telegram that he wouldn’t show up. The chair was quickly taken away.
The hasty 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.