Frail pope marks Good Friday

The Pope has been looking increasingly frail

ROME, Italy -- Pope John Paul II knelt to watch the traditional Good Friday procession in Rome -- making it the first time he has not led the half-mile walk during his 22-year papacy.

The pope viewed the annual Via Crucis (Way of the Cross) procession from a podium on the Palatine hill outside the 2,000-year-old Roman Colosseum.

He usually carries a 7.7lb (3.5 kg) wooden cross along the journey from the Colosseum to the Palatine Hill in one of Christianity's most solemn ceremonial rites marking the pain and suffering felt by Jesus at his Crucifixion.

This year the pope walked and carried the cross for just a few metres during the last part of the service.

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At the end of the procession, the pope said: "With this Via Crucis here in Rome and around the world we are proclaiming this truth for the first time in this millennium.

"We want to carry this truth about the divinity and humanity of Christ forward into the third millennium," he said.

The Vatican said the pope's reduced participation in the procession was in deference to his health and age.

The pope, who is 81 next month, shows signs of the symptoms of Parkinson's Disease -- but the Vatican has denied he suffers from the ailment.

Bishop Piero Marini, the pope's master of ceremonies, said the decision was made to spare the pope from climbing a steep stone stairwell up to the Palatine terrace, which gave John Paul trouble last year, Italian television said.

Pilgrims from Italy, Rwanda, Thailand, and the Dominican Republic carried the cross for the initial 12 stations.

The pope blessed the crowd that had gathered inside and outside the Colosseum.

John Paul has scaled back his participation in the annual rite in recent years, first in 1995 after hip replacement surgery forced him to carry the cross for only part of the procession.

Until this year, however, the pontiff had walked the entire length of the circuit.

The foot-washing ceremony remembers the Last Supper

John Paul has had a rigorous Holy Week, presiding over a Holy Thursday Mass, and hearing confessions of 12 faithful on Friday morning in St. Peter's Square as well as preside at a Passion of the Lord service in the Vatican basilica.

He washed and kissed the feet of 12 priests in a ceremony to commemorate Jesus' Last Supper with his apostles before being crucified.

He will lead the candlelit Easter vigil in St. Peter's Square on Saturday and celebrate Easter Mass on Sunday.

In early May he leaves for a six-day tour of Greece, Syria and later in the month presides over a major meeting of the College of Cardinals, summoned to Rome to discuss church strategy in the new millennium.

In June, he is going ahead with a delicate trip to Ukraine, facing protests by the Russian Orthodox church, but hoping his efforts for better relations with other Christians can pave the way for a historic trip to Moscow.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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