Vatican City, Apr 10, 2006 / 22:00 pm
The Vatican announced today that the meditations for this year’s Good Friday Way of the Cross will be available to consumers in Italy, Germany and the U.S.
The Vatican Publishing House said in a communique this morning that the meditations will be available starting Tuesday in a number of religious and chain bookstores in the three participating countries.
This year’s Way of the Cross, which will be held in Rome’s Coliseum on April 14th-- Good Friday, will be the first ever to be led by Pope Benedict XVI. The meditations were written by Archbishop Angelo Comastri, who is prelate emeritus of Loreto and the Pope’s vicar general for Vatican City State.
The communique says that the meditations "invite us to reflect upon the devastating power of sin and, at the same time, encourage us to contemplate the healing power of God's love clearly expressed in the cross of Christ."
The text is slated to be released today in Italy, Germany and the United States. Herder and Ignatius Press are the official publishers for the German and U.S. editions while the Italian is being produced by the Vatican Publishing House.