Hong Kong cardinal: Way of the Cross gives voice to living martyrs

Published: 2008-03-18

VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- Pope Benedict XVI wanted the voice of today's living martyrs, especially Catholics in China, to be heard at the Way of the Cross, said the author of this year's meditations. The pope asked Cardinal Joseph Zen Ze-kiun of Hong Kong to write the commentary and prayers for the March 21 Good Friday evening service at Rome's Colosseum. The cardinal, who long has been outspoken on the lack of full religious freedom in mainland China, said this was the pope's way of bringing attention to Asia and involving "the faithful of China, for whom the 'Via Crucis' is a devotion" many hold close to their hearts. "The pope wanted me to bring to the Colosseum the voice of those faraway sisters and brothers," he wrote in the introduction to the mediations and prayers released by the Vatican in Italian March 18. The 64-page booklet was illustrated with 20th-century Chinese Christian art from the Society of Divine Word's archives.

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