Cardinal Ratzinger to write this year’s Vatican Way of the Cross

Vatican City, Mar 8, 2005 / 22:00 pm

The Pope has chosen Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith and dean of the College of Cardinals, to write the meditations for this year’s Way of the Cross, traditionally celebrated on Good Friday in Rome's Coliseum.

Last year’s meditations were given by Fr. Andre Louf, a Belgian Cistercian monk who, after 35 years as abbot of the monastery of Notre Dame de Mont-des-Cats, France, retired to a hermitage in the south of France.

Pope John Paul II himself wrote the text of the meditations in 2003, for the 25th anniversary of his pontificate; in 2000, for the Great Jubilee; and in 1984, for the extraordinary Holy Year of the Redemption.