Fr. Ibrahim Faltas, Head of Schools of the Custody of the Holy Land, reflects on how on the morning of Good Friday, 10 Franciscan friars were able to carry out the ancient rite of the Way of the Cross through the Old City of Jerusalem.
By Fr. Ibrahim Faltas* Since February 28, it has not been possible to fully live the poignant liturgical season of Lent due to the war that has spread throughout the Middle East, affecting even Jerusalem. For the same reason, we will not be able to gather in large numbers to participate in the rites and liturgies of the Easter Triduum, which have been firmly linked for millennia to the places that witnessed and experienced the life of Our Lord, and later His painful Passion and Death. The days and hours of the Easter Triduum alternate between the pain of a betrayed and denied Jesus, his arrest and death sentence, the darkness of loneliness and the abandonment to the Father’s will, before finally seeing the Light. The Way of the Cross on Good Friday 2026 through the Old City of Jerusalem, meditating on Jesus’ tribulations under the weight of the Cross along the Via Dolorosa, was attended by only 10 Franciscans, led by the Custos of the Holy Land, Fr. Francesco Ielpo. I recall the Way of the Cross on Good Friday 2020, when, due to the pandemic restrictions, only the then-Custodian, Fr. Francesco Patton, myself, and the Guardian of St. Saviour, Fr. Marcelo Cicchinelli, were able to walk the Via Dolorosa, meditating and praying the devotion so dear to pilgrims and local faithful—without their presence and under the watchful eye of about fifty soldiers. We do not know exactly when the devotion to the Way of the Cross in the Old City of Jerusalem began, as people meditated on the sufferings of Jesus under the weight of the Cross. We can imagine that Mary, the Mother of God, retraced the same path as her Son, perhaps shortly after His Death; we can imagine the pain in the sorrowful heart of a Mother who sees again the stones upon which her Son fell, hears His footsteps, and continues to suffer from the humiliations He endured. The pilgrim Egeria had spread the news of the religious practice in Jerusalem that commemorated the Passion of Jesus at the very sites where it had taken place. Many pilgrims, chroniclers, and historians have left traces of this devotion, but it is likely that St. Francis’ devotion to the Passion of the Lord Jesus gave impetus to this pious practice, as a fruit of his pilgrimage of peace to the Holy Land. The Saint of Assisi loved Jesus immensely; he had undertaken the Holy Journey with a strong desire to visit and to take care of the Holy Places. I like to imagine that it was precisely on the Via Dolorosa that St. Francis nurtured the desire for his friars to become custodians of the Holy Places. He loved the Child Jesus with tenderness; he wanted to remember him and keep him ever present before his eyes and in his heart by staging the first Nativity scene in Greccio. Since 1333—for nearly seven hundred years—we have preserved the memory of the Places of Salvation, and by mandate of the Holy See since 1342, when Pope Clement VI officially asked us “to dwell in the Holy Places and to celebrate sung Masses and the Divine Offices there.” For us Franciscans, this is a privilege we jealously guard and an honor that allows us to face difficulties and hardships in a land sanctified by God’s presence, yet wounded and embittered by conflicts and tensions. On the journey that will lead us to Holy Easter 2026, we have encountered violence, death, and sorrow for the suffering of so many brothers and sisters who have been denied so many rights, who have been denied love. We can, however, note a fraternal joy and a great honor for the Custody of the Holy Land: the Holy Father, Pope Leo XIV, personally requested that it be Father Francesco Patton, former Custos of the Holy Land, the one to prepare the meditations for the Way of the Cross, which is celebrated every year at the Colosseum and led by the Pontiff himself. A moment of grace for the Custody of the Holy Land amid many tribulations for a land that witnessed the suffering of Christ, now reflected in the suffering of a wounded and afflicted humanity. *Head of Schools of the Custody of the Holy Land