Pope leads Easter pilgrims in torch-lit procession

Pope Benedict reflected on the suffering of Jesus Christ and that of humanity throughout the ages as he led thousands of pilgrims and tourists in a torch-lit, Way of the Cross procession at the Coliseum in Rome to mark Good Friday.

Opening the late-night procession with a prayer, Benedict said Jesus’s suffering “is the whole of human history, a history where the good are humiliated, the meek assaulted, the honest crushed, and the pure of heart roundly mocked”.