Decked in white scarves embroidered with doves and prayers, more than 1,000 Christian children, parents, and teachers gathered on Jerusalem’s Via Cruicis to walk “The Way of Peace” on February 23. The procession, which drew participation from local Christian schools of Jerusalem, traveled the City's storied streets as the children prayed for peace in the Holy Land.
According to Custodia – the website of the Custody of the Holy Land – the route began before the Chapel of the Condemnation, the site where a statue of Jesus Christ was vandalized in 2023. There, Fr. Ibrahim Faltas, Vicar of the Custody of the Holy Land and Director of the Terra Sancta Schools, spoke on the importance of the procession:
“We are here to invoke peace,” Fr. Ibrahim explained. “This is why we wanted to call today’s Via Crucis 'The Way of Peace' and a white dove was printed on the scarves distributed to all the participants. These children and young people are here to pray for all their brothers and sisters who are in Gaza and who are suffering and imploring that this terrible war ends.”
The procession then followed the path of the Via Crucis, which is said to follow the same steps that Jesus took on his way to the Crucifixion. At each of the 14 Stations of the Cross, two children released two white doves, save for the final stations which concluded in St. Saviour’s Church.
Br. Francesco Patton, Custos of the Holy Land, addressed those who participated in the procession from the pulpit:
“There is no stronger prayer for peace than the one said on the route that remembers the Passion and death of Jesus … It was a Via Crucis that also had the intention of exhorting our children to remain resolute in hope and also to express solidarity with the children of Bethlehem and the Palestinian Territories, whose families are without work. At a time when it seems that men are unable to agree, we have to knock more insistently on God’s door with our prayer, so that he can bring those who must and can find a solution to this war back to reason.”
