Via Crucis

Walking the way of the cross (Via Crucis) is traditionally a Catholic devotional exercise that commemorates the passion and resurrection of Jesus Christ. Embraced now by Christians of all denominations, the stations of the cross invite us to enter into the reality of Christ's life, death and resurrection, inspiring us to live kinder, different and more peaceful lives. Also called the way of sorrow (Via Dolorosa), the stations of the cross lead us on a spiritual pilgrimage of prayer during Lent.

The images I have chosen to include here hang in the chapel at the University of Central America, a Jesuit college in San Salvador, El Salvador. I first encountered these when I visited the chapel with my father in the summer of 2002. The university is the cite of the assassinations of six Jesuit priests, their housekeeper and her daughter on November 16, 1989 during the country's civil war. It has since been discovered that those responsible for for the massacre were trained at the U.S. Army School of the Americas (SOA) in Ft. Benning, GA. As an undergraduate at Boston College I attended the annual protest at Ft. Benning twice. The protest is a powerful, moving experience of both solidarity with the victims of the school's graduates as well as an acknowledgment of the U.S.'s violent role in Latin America. The graphic images portray the stations of the cross and are accompanied by text from the sermon Archbishop Oscar Romero gave the weekend before he was assassinated, in March 1980.

FIRST STATION: Jesus is Condemned to Death

Let no one be offended because we use the divine words read at our Mass to shed light on the social, political and economic situation of our people. Not to do so would be un-Christian. Christ desires to unite himself with humanity, so that the light he brings from God might become life for nations and individuals. I know many are shocked by this preaching and want to accuse us of forsaking the gospel for politics. But I reject this accusation.

RESOURCES:

Megan McKenna, The New Stations of the Cross: The Way of the Cross According to Scripture (USA: Image, 2003)