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The Way of the Cross (Via Crucis or Via Dolorosa) is the act of devotion commemorating Christ’s Passion. For centuries this tradition has accompanied Christians during Lent and particularly on Good Friday. 35 years ago Fr. Luigi Giussani, a teacher and educator, the founder of Communion and Liberation, a Movement in the Catholic Church, started proposing this gesture of the Christian faith to his college students, gathering them by the thousands in Caravaggio, a Sanctuary near Milan, Italy. Together with the traditional readings from the Gospel, Giussani introduced short passages from some of the greatest contemporary Catholic writers, like Claudel and Peguy. The Choir accompanied the procession singing at every station to constantly reawaken the awareness of the faithful with the beauty and sorrow that only choral music can express. An ancient tradition was brought to new life. In 1996 a handful of friends belonging to the movement of Communion and Liberation asked for permission to walk the Way of the Cross on the Brooklyn Bridge. Unexpectedly permission was granted by the Authorities and the gesture blessed by the then Bishop of Brooklyn, H.E. Thomas V. Daily. Accompanied by Fr. Ronald Marino less than thirty people followed the Cross along the Brooklyn Bridge pathway on a cloudy and rainy day on Good Friday 1996. Year after year the Way of the Cross over the Brooklyn Bridge started growing. Thirty people became a hundred, two, three, four hundred, a thousand until, on Good Friday 2002, almost three thousand New Yorkers followed the Cross all the way to Ground Zero. Always led by H.E. Bishop Ignatius Catanello, sustained each and every year by the blessing of our Popes and of our local Pastors, thousands gather on Good Friday to follow on Christ’s footsteps in the heart of the City, on the day of His Passion.
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