"Like the young girl with a slim body we met one evening in Rome while men in luxury cars lined up to exploit her. She might have been the age of their own children," the meditation for the sixth station, Veronica wipes the face of Jesus, stated.
"Cleanse our eyes so that we can see your face in our brothers and sisters, especially in all those children," the prayer that followed stated. "Little ones used as cheap goods, bought and sold at will. Lord, we ask you to have mercy and compassion on this sick world. Help us rediscover the beauty of our dignity, and that of others, as human beings created in your image and likeness."
Pope Francis personally selected Sister Bonetti to write the meditations for the Stations of the Cross. Bonetti, 80, is a Consolata Missionary Sister from northern Italy, who aids women and girls in Italy to leave prostitution and trafficking.
"Lord Jesus, it is easy to wear a crucifix on a chain around our neck or to use it to decorate the walls of our beautiful cathedrals or homes. It is less easy to encounter and acknowledge today's newly crucified: the homeless; the young deprived of hope, without work and without prospects; the immigrants relegated to slums at the fringe of our societies after having endured untold suffering," Bonetti wrote in her Way of the Cross meditations.
Pope Francis presided over the Stations of the Cross on Good Friday at the Colosseum – a Roman practice that dates back to the pontificate of Benedict XIV, who died in 1758.
After a pause, the tradition was revived by St. Pope Paul VI in 1964. During St. John Paul II's papacy, the Colosseum stations became a worldwide television event; the pope himself used to carry the cross.