Pope Leo carries the cross at all 14 stations during the Good Friday procession, the first pope to do so in decades.

Pope Leo XIV carrying a wooden cross through all 14 stations of the Way of the Cross at the Colosseum on his first Friday as pope, the first time in decades that a pope has carried a cross through all the stations.

“I think it will be an important sign because of what the pope represents, the spiritual leader in the world today, and this voice, which everyone wants to hear, that Christ is still suffering,” Leo told reporters this week outside the papal withdrawal center in Castel Gandolfo. “All this suffering I carry in my prayer.”

Inside the Colosseum, Leo raised a cross and began the service accompanied by two torchbearers, who accompanied him throughout the hour-long procession from inside the Colosseum, through the crowd outside and up the steps to the Palantine Hill where he gave a final blessing.

In the first station, which marks the time when Jesus was condemned to death, a meditation specially prepared for Leo’s first Good Friday emphasized that those in authority will have to answer to God for how they use their power.

“The power to judge; the power to start or end war; the power to impose violence or peace; the power to encourage the desire for revenge, or for reconciliation,” reads the meditation written by Reverend Francesco Patton, who was the custodian of the Holy Land 2016-25, among other things, who was charged with the care of the holy places.

About 30,000 faithful gathered outside the pagan monument, following the stations as they were announced through loudspeakers.

They included Sister Pelenatita Kieoma Finau from Samoa and a member of the Missionary Sisters of the Society of Mary.

“We have been part of our stations of the cross, but this is exciting. It is very important to have the experience of being with the people of Rome in this important event,” he said.

John Paul II he carried the cross for every procession from his first Good Friday as pope in 1979 until he underwent hip surgery in 1995, when he carried it only half way, according to AP reports at the time.

In the first two years of his papacy, Benedict XVI he carried the cross to the first station inside the Colosseum, then followed the other bearers in a procession that ended at the platform on the Palatine Hill.

Pope Francis did not carry the cross, but participated in the procession until his health deteriorated. He he died after a long illness last year on Easter Monday, April 21.

Pope John Paul II was only 58 years old there he was pope, and was known as a pedestrian and an outsider. Two of his judges were in their 70s when they began the papacy, and Francis was missing part of a lung due to lung disease as a young man.

The Way of the Cross commemorates the last hours of Jesus’ life, from his death sentence to taking up the cross to his crucifixion, death and burial. The procession ends outside the Colosseum on top of the Palatine Hill.

Patton wrote: “Instead, it is the application of a person who knows that faith, hope and charity must be included in the real world.”

At 70, Leo is in good health and is an avid tennis player and swimmer. Before he became pope, Leo worked out regularly at a gym near the Vatican, with a routine fit for a man in his early 50s, according to his former trainer.

On Holy Saturday, the pope will preside late at night Easter vigilwhere he will baptize new Catholics, and lead Roman Catholics to the most joyful Christian festival that marks the resurrection of Christ.

On Easter Sunday, the pope will celebrate an open Mass in St. Peter’s Square in front to deliver his Easter message and gave the traditional blessing “Urbi et Orbi” to the city of Rome and to the world.