Good Friday observed around globe

JERUSALEM – Some in agony, others in ecstasy, Christians around the world marked Good Friday with prayer, processions and pleas for peace.

Thousands of pilgrims, some carrying large wooden crosses and others holding candles, wound their way through the narrow lanes of Jerusalem’s Old City, retracing the route the Bible says Jesus took on the way to his crucifixion.

And in Rome, Pope Benedict XVI carried the cross at the beginning of the traditional Way of the Cross procession at the Colosseum.

He described the procession as, “a journey into pain, solitude and cruelty, into evil and death.”

“But it will also be a path trod in faith, hope and love, because the tomb, which is the final stop on our way, will not remain sealed for ever,” the pope said of Easter Sunday, the day Christians celebrate the resurrection of Jesus.

Benedict handed the cross to Rome Cardinal Camillo Ruini, his vicar for Rome. Other faithful, including a young Congolese woman and a family from Rome, took turns carrying the cross.

In Mexico City, meanwhile, more than 500,000 people turned out for the annual Passion play in the capital’s working class Iztapalapa neighborhood.

Thousands participated in the procession, many lugging heavy crosses through the streets.

On Jerusalem’s Via Dolorosa – or Way of Sorrows – visitors from the United States, India, South Korea, the Philippines, Russia and many other countries followed the traditional route of Christ’s final walk, stopping at 14 stations, each marking an event that befell Jesus on the way to his death.