Thousands of Catholics participated in the Via Crucis in Rosario after the pandemic
Thousands of Catholics participated in the traditional Way of the Cross this Friday night, which concluded with a mass celebrated by Father Ignacio Peries, through the streets adjacent to the Nativity of the Lord Parish, in the Rucci neighborhood, in the northern part of the city of Santa Fe. from Rosario.
“Don’t lower your arms, the last hope is the grace of God,” said Father Ignacio, a charismatic 71-year-old priest from Sri Lanka who was a nationalized Argentine, at the mass he celebrated in the box set up on the avenue of the Grenadiers and Palestine, from the Rucci neighborhood, before a multitude of Christian faithful from the city, the region and from different provinces.
The Via Crucis of this Good Friday, the first to be carried out in person after the suspension of the last two years due to the Covid-19 pandemic, exceeded the last call, of 2019, and reached a figure “that exceeded 400 thousand people,” sources from the organization told Télam.
Like the Via Crucis of the last two years, tonight’s was also broadcast on the YouTube channel of the Nativity of the Lord Parish.
The northwestern area of Rosario has changed its appearance since mid-afternoon, with some 30 traffic closures in the avenues and streets adjacent to the Rucci neighborhood, diversion of half a dozen bus lines, reinforcement of the frequency of buses and new stops, and the assignment of huge parking spaces in the collectors of the Circunvalación avenue, to organize the arrival, circulation and evacuation of more than 400 thousand people, almost half of the population of the city in the south of the province of Santa Fe.
The activities began at 3:00 p.m. in the Nativity of the Lord Parish with prayers for the hour of Jesus’ death. At that time the boys and girls prayed the Via Crucis through the streets of the neighborhood, from the Nativity of the Lord School.
At 5 pm there was a reading and intercession, along with the adoration of the Holy Cross and Communion. The traditional Way of the Cross began at 8:00 p.m., when the Malvinas fighters in Rosario carried the image of the Virgin of the Nativity of the Lord to the stage built on Avenida de los Granaderos and Palestina.
This gesture was specially prepared as a recognition of the heroes of our country, on the 40th anniversary of the Malvinas deed, 20 years after the participation of the Rosario combatants in the Via Crucis.
Members of the Malvinas Combatants Center in Rosario toured the route and the enormous site of the Via Crucis with their traditional field kitchen, with which they distributed mate cocido to the attendees.
The activities of Holy Week in the Nativity of the Lord will continue tomorrow, at 3:30 p.m. with a community baptism, and will continue at 7:00 p.m. with the start of the Easter Vigil with the blessing of fire, candles and water, before the Holy Mass of Glory.
On Sunday there will be two Easter masses, at 9 and 18, in the Nativity of the Lord Parish, in the Rucci neighborhood.
