Pope Leo XIV at his 1st Good Friday Celebration of the Lord's Passion in Saint Peter's Basilica - Vatican - VIDEO

Celebration of the Lord's Passion - Video below - At 5 pm, Good Friday, April 3, the Holy Father Leo XIV presides over the celebration of the Passion of the Lord in the Vatican Basilica. The Pope prostrates himself on the ground for a few moments of reflection at the beginning of the celebration. During the Liturgy of the Word, the account of the Passion according to John is read; then the Preacher of the Papal Household, Rev. Father Roberto Pasolini, OFM Cap., delivers the homily. (see below the video)

The Liturgy of the Passion continues with the Universal Prayer and the adoration of the Holy Cross and concludes with Holy Communion.

Vatican PDF Booklet - https://www.vatican.va/content/dam/liturgy/pdf/2026/20260403-libretto-venerdi-passione.pdf

HOMILY by Fr. Roberto Pasolini, preacher of the Papal Household

“In wars, in divisions, in the wounds that mark all our relationships, evil continues to circulate because it always finds someone willing to return it and multiply it.” From Christ raised on the Cross, humanity instead learns a completely new logic: Jesus “broke this chain,” “welcoming what happened to him and recognizing in it the score of love and service entrusted to his life.” This is the heart of the homily of Father Roberto Pasolini, preacher of the Papal Household, in the celebration of the Passion of the Lord on Good Friday, April 3, presided over in St. Peter's Basilica by Leo XIV. The liturgy opened, in the silence of the assembly, with a procession along the central nave brought up last by the Pontiff himself, and with a few seconds of reflection with the Pope prostrate on the ground. The Pope prostrates himself on the ground for a few moments of reflection at the beginning of the celebration.  

The Cross becomes an instrument of Salvation 

The first reading, taken from the prophet Isaiah, which outlines the Servant of the Lord, "pierced for our sins," recounts, with "poetic texts," a "mysterious Servant through whom God manages to save the world from evil and sin." These songs, the Franciscan preacher explains, summarizing the content of all four prophetic poems, are "interpreted and lived intensely by Christ, with full trust in the Father's will, to the point of transforming his crucifixion into the salvation of the world." The Capuchin friar, in his reflection, emphasizes the timeliness of the sufferings of "that man of sorrows who knows how to suffer" and also the "surprising" originality of his response to the insults unjustly inflicted upon him. 

 Evil and violence multiply

 "We live in a world where the voice of God no longer guides humanity's shared journey as it once did," the priest comments. "Not because God's voice has faded, but because it has often become one voice among many, drowned out by other words promising security, progress, and well-being. These are the indications that guide many choices today and chart the course of our shared life," he continues. "And yet, the world continues to be a place where people suffer and die, often without guilt or reason. Wars do not stop, injustices multiply, and the most vulnerable pay the price." 

The "score of the Cross": do not respond to evil with evil. It is a dynamic that reiterates itself, for it rests on an instinct inscribed in the flesh of every human being: an impulse to "react," to "send back" the "hurt received," to "settle the score." Yet, in this music that flows from a well-known, seemingly immutable pentagram, a new melody erupts, thanks to Christ. It is the "score of the Cross" performed by "a silent host of people who choose to listen to a different voice," that of Jesus, who first set the example on Golgotha. "It is a discreet and stubborn song, which invites us to love, to remain, to never return the harm received," adds the preacher of the Papal Household. The work of these people is as silent and invisible as it is precious. "They are men and women," the Capuchin continues, "who walk, sometimes without even knowing it, the same path as the Servant of the Lord. They don't perform extraordinary gestures. They simply get up every day and try to make their lives something that serves not only themselves, but also others. They carry burdens they didn't choose, they embrace wounds without hardening, they don't stop seeking good even when it seems futile. They don't make noise, they don't take center stage, but they keep open the possibility of a different world." 

 Lay down the weapons that devastate the world and daily relationships The Cross of Christ, which this evening's celebration invites us to adore, encourages us to "decide, at least in our hearts, to lay down the weapons we still hold in our hands." These are weapons of aggression whose danger we might be tempted to underestimate, especially when compared to the deadly offensive potential of the weapons "at the disposal of the world's powerful." "And yet," argues Father Pasolini, "they too are instruments of death, because they are sufficient to weaken, to wound, to empty our daily relationships of meaning and love." To the world seeking salvation from the "violence of evil," from the "injustice that kills," and from "the divisions that humiliate," Christ on the Cross offers a novel solution, one not based on "political, economic, or military decisions." By imitating his example, "the world is continually saved by those who are willing to embrace the songs of the Servant of the Lord as a way of life," the Capuchin monk emphasizes.

 The rite of the Adoration of the Cross 

A new logic of service to others Finally, the preacher of the Papal Household exhorts Christians, in this "time like ours, so torn by hatred and violence, where even the name of God is invoked to justify wars and decisions of death," to approach "without fear, indeed 'with full trust,' the Cross of the Lord, knowing" that it is not "a throne on which one learns to reign by putting one's life at the service of others." 

After the homily and the Universal Prayer, the adoration of the Cross took place, introduced by three pauses along the central nave. Before the altar, the Pope first, followed by the cardinals and bishops, paused before the Crucifix to adore it, kneeling and kissing the feet of Jesus, Servant of the Lord.

Sources: https://www.vaticannews.va/it/papa/news/2026-04/venerdi-santo-impariamo-da-cristo-a-non-restituire-il-male.html

https://press.vatican.va/content/salastampa/it/bollettino/pubblico/2026/04/03/0256/00552.html