Ukraine’s ambassador to the Holy See described the Vatican’s earlier announcement that a Ukrainian and a Russian family would carry the cross together at a crossroads stop at the Colosseum in Rome on Friday night as a “difficulty”.
Andriy Juras, Ukraine’s ambassador to the Holy See, wrote on his Twitter account that there is general concern in Ukraine and other Ukrainian communities about the idea of Ukrainian and Russian women carrying the cross together at the Colosseum at the traditional crossroads.
“We are working on the issue, trying to explain why there is such difficulty in implementation and what the possible consequences are,” the ambassador noted in the microblog.
The Vatican announced Monday that Pope Francis has entrusted the stations of Via Crucis to families this year, and that members of a Ukrainian and Russian family will carry the cross together on the penultimate station.
According to the daily L’Osservatore Romano, Ukraine is represented by the family of Irina, a nurse working in the oncology department of a Roman church hospital. The Russian family is the daughter of a Russian university student named Albina, who is studying to be a nurse at a university in the same hospital. Irina and Albina know each other and are friends.
The Vatican did not comment on the statements of the ambassador of the Ukrainian Holy See and did not change the program of the cross.
Antonio Spadaro, editor-in-chief of the Catholic weekly La Civiltá Cattolica, commented on the community page: “We must understand that Pope Francis is a priest, not a politician. He acts in the spirit of the Gospel, which the Pope called a sacrament.”
Father Spadaro mentioned that on March 25, Pope Francis recommended Russia and Ukraine to protect the Virgin Mary.
Opening photo: MTI/AP/Andrew Medichini
