Pope Francis on Palm Sunday 2022: In war, Christ is crucified again

At Mass on Palm Sunday 2022, Pope Francis condemned the violence of war, and called Christians to forgive their enemies, just as Christ did while he was violently nailed to the cross.

“When we resort to violence, we show that we no longer know anything about God, who is our Father, or even about others, who are our brothers and sisters,” the pope said on April 10.

“We see this in the folly of war, where Christ is crucified yet another time,” the pope underlined. “Christ is once more nailed to the Cross in mothers who mourn the unjust death of husbands and sons. He is crucified in refugees who flee from bombs with children in their arms. He is crucified in the elderly left alone to die; in young people deprived of a future; in soldiers sent to kill their brothers and sisters.”

“Father, forgive them for they know not what they do. Many people heard these extraordinary words, but only one person responded to them. He was a criminal, crucified next to Jesus,” the pope said in St. Peter’s Square.

For the first time in two years, since the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, Pope Francis celebrated a public liturgy in St. Peter’s Square. According to the Vatican gendarmes, around 65,000 people were present.

Palm Sunday 2022 marked the beginning of Holy Week and a return to the customary large public celebrations of the Triduum and Easter at the Vatican after the coronavirus.

The pope’s Palm Sunday Mass began with a large procession of deacons, priests, bishops, cardinals and lay people carrying palms into St. Peter’s Square.

The procession circled the obelisk, before the eyes of thousands of participants. Olive tree branches, palm fronds, and the large, weaved palms called “parmureli” carried by cardinals, were blessed by Pope Francis.

Unlike previous years, when Francis led the procession around the obelisk, on Sunday, the pope walked directly from a car to his chair on the altar for the blessing and the commemoration of the entrance of the Lord Jesus into Jerusalem, before the start of Mass. He also delivered the homily seated.

Also called Passion Sunday, Palm Sunday includes the reading of the Lord’s Passion from the Gospel of St. Luke.

St. Luke wrote that “Father, forgive them for they know not what they do,” were some of the last words uttered by Jesus on the cross, before his death.