Father Francesco Patton, author of the meditations for the Pope's Good Friday 'Via Crucis' at the Colosseum in Rome, notes that even today, many people are living a Way of the Cross.
By Roberto Cetera “In the reflections and prayers, the inspiration from current reality and from concrete people is evident,” particularly from the sufferings of Christians in the Middle East due to the war. In this way, Father Francesco Patton of the Order of Friars Minor, summarized the origin of the meditations written for the Way of the Cross that will be presided over by Pope Leo XIV at the Colosseum on Good Friday evening. In the following interview with Vatican News, Fr. Patton, who served as the Custos of the Holy Land from 2016 until June 2025, explained how the Pope’s choice coincided with the eighth centenary of the death of St. Francis of Assisi. Q: Father Patton, the Pope entrusted you with the writing of the meditations that will accompany the Good Friday Way of the Cross at the Colosseum. Is this an unequivocal sign of the Holy Father’s attention to the Holy Land and the tragedies afflicting the countries of the Middle East? Since the day of his election, Pope Leo XIV has continuously invoked the gift of peace. He has expressed closeness and solidarity not only to the Holy Land but to all countries, peoples, and individuals suffering because of war. This, after all, has been the Church’s line for over 100 years, since August 1, 1917, when Pope Benedict XV refused to bless the armies, defined the war being fought as an “useless slaughter,” and urged the leaders of the belligerent nations to reach a just and lasting peace through negotiation, respect for international law, the return of occupied territories, restoration of free movement, and disarmament to free resources to be invested in the common good and development. Since then, the Church has always expressed closeness to populations devastated by war and repeatedly condemned armed conflicts, which continue to be an “useless slaughter.” Almost every Sunday after the Angelus and every Wednesday at the end of his catechesis at the General Audience, Pope Leo XIV has insisted on the necessity of achieving peace, not only in the Holy Land but in all countries currently involved in bloody wars. Last Sunday, he used very strong words to reject violence perpetrated in the name of God, saying that God does not listen to the prayers of warmongers with hands stained with blood. Q: I imagine receiving this invitation was a surprise for you. A very big surprise, I would say. I was concretely contacted by the Secretariat of State, which told me that the Holy Father, in conjunction with the eighth centenary of the death of Saint Francis of Assisi, had instructed them to ask me to prepare the meditations. The matter intimidated me but at the same time honored me. Q: What inspired you most while writing these meditations? I took inspiration from the Gospel texts, favoring the Evangelist St. John, who has a penetrating view of the mystery of the Lord’s Passion; and then from the “Writings” of Saint Francis, which are a treasure trove of Christian spirituality. In the reflections and prayers, it is evident that the inspiration also comes from current reality and from concrete people in whom, over these years, I have been able to see the characters of the Way of the Cross. Where I speak about the suffering of mothers and women, women appear in watermark who have also been written about in L’Osservatore Romano and who today embody the figure of Mary, Veronica, and the women of Jerusalem. Behind the reflection on the distorted conception of power and abuse of power there are international news events that are before everyone’s eyes; the Cyrenean has the face of many volunteers and humanitarian and communication workers whom I have met over these years and who risked their lives to care for someone or to make the truth known, without even being Christians. The concrete situations named in the reflections do not want to trigger judgment on individual persons, but invite reflection, asking questions and — if necessary — even to change. The message is essentially religious and wants to express the closeness of Jesus Christ, as the incarnate Son of God, to every human person. I tried to make the Way of the Cross at the Colosseum inspired by the Way of the Cross that we make every Friday along the Via Dolorosa and at the same time draw from the spirituality of Saint Francis to help believers “walk in the footsteps of Jesus” and non-believers discover that Jesus cares about each of us, and that in Him one can find hope and a reason for life even if it has been lost. My desire is that, by encountering Jesus Christ and walking behind Him toward Calvary, every person may perceive His closeness and His love; perceive that Jesus Christ gave His life for each of us and wants to bring each of us “back to the Father” together with Him, to find life in its fullness thanks to Him and to live the human condition, which is finite and mortal, with the horizon of Easter, Resurrection, eternal life, and participation in God’s very life. Q: Father Francesco, your custodial mandate has crossed through nine years of very serious events: the civil war in Syria, Covid, the war in Gaza. Now, at the end of your assignment, you have decided to remain as a simple friar in the Holy Land, on the mountain from which Moses could only see it. Why did you choose Mount Nebo? More precisely, I offered my availability to live on Mount Nebo.After so many years spent in positions of authority and governance, I felt the need to return to living as a simple Minor Friar. Living in a small, somewhat peripheral fraternity allows me to recover a more regular rhythm of prayer, resume studying, serve pilgrims, and perform humble services. Also, Mount Nebo has always had a great appeal to me, both because it is linked to the figure of Saint Moses, which is extraordinarily rich and that I like to deepen, and because this place was for centuries a Byzantine monastery and sanctuary, then swallowed up by historical events and left in ruins, and finally reborn a hundred years ago thanks to the friars of the Custody of the Holy Land, who here in Jordan were able to befriend the Bedouin family who owned it and who, after selling the site to the Custody in 1932, remained collaborating with us. It is a meeting place for everyone and with everyone, frequented by Christians and Muslims alike, where all can breathe that climate of faith and peace it transmits, and where all can obtain “healing of body and soul,” as a pilgrim of the 5th century said. Q: Christians in the Holy Land live a daily Way of the Cross, whose outcome increasingly is migration. How can one be the salt of the earth under those conditions? It is very difficult, but not impossible. Christians living today in the Holy Land are very similar to the first generation of Christians; they have the same virtues and the same limits, and probably the same DNA. In any case, if 2000 years ago Jesus said to the few disciples He had: “Do not fear, little flock, for it has pleased your Father to give you the Hingdom’s mysteries,” it is because even then the disciples were statistically insignificant but had discovered the true meaning of life, that revealed by Jesus in the Sermon on the Mount, culminating in the Beatitudes, forgiveness of enemies, and mercy; that revealed through welcoming children, women, the poor, the sick, but also tax collectors, sinners, and prostitutes; that revealed by washing the feet of His own, then giving His life and conquering death for us. Being Christians in the Holy Land — but in all parts of the world where Christians are few and/or persecuted — is a vocation and a mission: we are called to show the merciful face of God who welcomes every person without distinction of gender, nationality, or religion; and we are called — even in this way — to reveal the filial dignity of being created in the image and likeness of God that every person has, even those belonging to another people, even those who have erred, even those who have harmed me. Q: Religions as instruments of peace. Yet, wars in the Middle East, unlike in past decades, increasingly have a religious reference. Even Israel, born in a secular Western-style context, today seems prey to a messianic fundamentalism. What happened? What happened is what happened elsewhere, especially after the fall of the Berlin Wall: secular ideologies fell, and those in power began to exploit religions to create identities and opposition. We could say that the “zealots,” who at Jesus’ time justified violence in God’s name, have come back into fashion. Today, “zealots” are everywhere: we find them in the Muslim world through a galaxy of armed fundamentalist movements; we find them in the Jewish world, well represented by settlers and those who politically support them locally and internationally; we also find them among Christians, who unfortunately invoke strange blessings going in the opposite direction to that indicated last Sunday by Pope Leo XIV and 2,000 years ago by Jesus in Gethsemane; we even find them in secular form in state laicisms that censor religious expressions in a discriminatory and persecutory way. What is happening in Israel is not an anomaly but a global trend. In this context, the Church has a very important role to play, that of reiterating some evangelical cornerstones: one must give to Caesar what is Caesar’s but to God what is God’s. This means desacralizing and secularizing political power while guaranteeing religious freedom for all. It is necessary to remove the ground from under both religious fundamentalism and the political exploitation of religion. To do this, religious leaders of all religions must be convinced to cooperate in delegitimizing any exploitation of religion to justify violence. The principles laid down in the Document on Human Fraternity signed in Abu Dhabi by Pope Francis and the Grand Imam of Al-Azhar, and received in the encyclical Fratelli tutti, would be an excellent starting point for a kind of “UN” of religions. Obviously, it is also necessary to educate the faithful in this perspective, knowing well that the “zealots” will strongly oppose this, citing religious reasons themselves. Q: The Israeli-Palestinian conflict has lasted for 80 years now. 95% of today’s combatants have never known peace. I ask you very simply: will there ever be peace in the Holy Land? Sooner or later there will be, inevitably, but the path will still be long; it will require a generational change, a change of political class (hoping not to go from the frying pan into the fire), and above all a cultural change. Today — unfortunately — there are no true prophets or men with a vision, but this is not a problem only in Israel and Palestine or the Middle East; it is a global problem. There are nonetheless positive signs in civil society. I think of the movement started by the Israeli Maoz Inon and the Palestinian Aziz Abu Sarah, or the “Mothers Who Walk Barefoot for Peace,” or the “Women of Faith for Peace,” and many other small groups that are hoped to grow. Our own schools are an example of education towards coexistence and fraternity. As I have repeatedly said over these years, there is also a political responsibility to introduce in the school system compulsory programs of education for respect and welcoming of the other, for conflict management and peace, following the model of what is done at Rondine, the citadel of peace in the Arezzo area. This is not only true for Israel and Palestine but also for European countries.