As we were preparing our hearts to experience the mystery of Holy Week, a special initiative drew our attention to the open wounds of those around us: the Way of the Cross of the Invisible.
For the past three years, Caritas, one of Rome’s leading centres for aid and assistance to the needy, has been organising this moment of prayer near Rome’s Termini Station. This is, in fact, an area characterised by a strong presence of men and women marked by suffering and poverty.
It is not merely a ritual, but an invitation to recognise the faces of the many brothers and sisters living on the margins, often driven to Italy by global scenarios of war and violence, and to whom organisations such as Caritas are committed to restoring, first and foremost, human ‘dignity’.
As in previous editions of this celebration, many people volunteered their time, and we, the Missionary Sisters of the Immaculate and our novices, who already visit this centre daily to help distribute dinner to those in need, took part.
This year, the Way of the Cross of the Invisibles took place on Friday 27 March from 6.00 pm, organised by the “Don Luigi di Liegro” Hostel, the main initial reception centre of Caritas Rome, and the Basilica of the Sacred Heart of Jesus at Castro Pretorio, both located on Via Marsala, next to Termini.
The prayer service began inside the Basilica of the Sacred Heart of Jesus with the recitation of the Holy Rosary and the celebration of Holy Mass, and continued with a procession to the “Don Luigi di Liegro” Hostel.
The theme chosen for this year’s event was “The Way of the Cross, the Way of Peace”.
The Passion of Christ meets the journey of the invisible, touching the open wounds of those seeking hope. During the Eucharistic celebration, the bishop himself recalled that: “These are people who live on our streets, but whom we do not always recognise in our hearts”.
It is there, amongst the city’s ruins and parks, in the shacks, in the abandoned caravans, in the cellars and on the banks of the Tiber and Aniene rivers, that the heart-wrenching search for hope in life becomes the true path towards resurrection.
The basilica was packed with people, and the Way of the Cross procession drew at least two hundred participants; even the faces of the homeless themselves became a living presence. The event also involved other groups, such as some guests from the Porta San Lorenzo marquee, inaugurated during the Jubilee of the Invisible. It was not merely a matter of taking part in a procession, of singing and praying, but of taking the time to look each person in the eye, because all too often we do not stop to listen.
Bishop Di Tolve’s words during the homily were deeply moving: ‘God rejects no one’, and he emphasised that whilst we may forget the homeless, God never forgets them. Jesus too was crushed by exclusion, but the cross, once an instrument of death, “has become a sign of hope thanks to Jesus’ total love, and even in rejection and suffering, Christ continues to welcome, without judging”.
The hope that this Way of the Cross has brought with it along the stages of the journey is that everyone may follow the path of the Gospel, so that the invisible may become brothers and sisters to all and “all of us, ever more, the Church of God’s love”, as the bishop said.
Sr Francisca Sagu, Italy
