Pope Francis decried what he called Europe’s “indifferent and anaesthetised conscience” over refugees, during Good Friday prayers in Rome during which he also criticised pedophile priests, arms dealers and fundamentalists.



Tens of thousands of Catholic faithful gathered for the service at the city’s Colosseum, where thousands of Christians are believed to have been killed in Roman times.

“O Cross of Christ, today we see you in the Mediterranean and Aegean Seas which have become insatiable cemeteries, reflections of our indifferent and anaesthetised conscience,” the 79-year old pontiff said, referring to the thousands who set off in unseaworthy boats to reach Greece and the rest of Europe.

The pope has long called for the global community to open its doors to refugees and fight xenophobia – appeals which have intensified since a controversial deal between Europe and Turkey to expel migrants arriving in Greece.

Earlier in the day, the pontiff washed and kissed the feet of refugees, including Muslims, at a shelter outside Rome — a gesture of welcome at a time when anti-Muslim and anti-immigrant sentiment has risen after the Brussels and Paris attacks.

Pope Francis washed the feet of 11 young asylum seekers to highlight the need for the international community to provide shelter to refugees. Photograph: STR/AFP/Getty Images

In his address at the Colosseum, he did not spare his own Church, fiercely denouncing pedophile priests whom he described as those “unfaithful ministers who, instead of stripping themselves of their own vain ambitions, divest even the innocent of their dignity”.

The Roman Catholic Church continues to be dogged by cases of predatory priests and past cover-ups. Just this month a French cardinal faced calls to resign over allegations he promoted a cleric who had a previous conviction for sexual abuse.

In the wake of this week’s deadly attacks in Brussels, the pope criticised “terrorist acts committed by followers of some religions which profane the name of God and which use the holy name to justify their unprecedented violence”.

He said it was “arms dealers who feed the cauldron of war with the innocent blood of our brothers and sisters” and raged against “traitors who, for thirty pieces of silver, would consign anyone to death”.

In his wide-ranging address, the pope lashed out at persecutors of Christians in particular, lamenting “our sisters and brothers killed, burned alive, throats slit and decapitated by barbarous blades amid cowardly silence”.

During the service, a small group of believers carried a cross between 14 “stations” evoking the last hours of Jesus’s life during the traditional Via Crucis (Way of the Cross) procession, amid visibly heightened security.

People gather for the Via Crucis (Way of the Cross) torchlight procession on Good Friday at the Colosseum. Photograph: Filippo Monteforte/AFP/Getty Images

Good Friday is the second of four intensive days in the Christian calendar culminating in Easter Sunday, commemorating Christ’s resurrection.

On Saturday, the pontiff will take part in an evening Easter vigil in St Peter’s Basilica, before celebrating Easter mass on Sunday and pronouncing the traditional “Urbi et Orbi” blessing to the world.