Marking the most solemn day in the Church calendar, Washington Cardinal Wilton Gregory presided over an April 15 Good Friday Celebration of the Lord’s Passion in which he venerated the cross of Jesus and urged the faithful to “consider carefully the impact that capital punishment has on us as a society.”

“On this day, when we must all acknowledge that we have all been set free through the death of one who was truly and perfectly innocent, should we not consider working for a society made more humane by disallowing yet one more act of violence?” he asked.

Cardinal Gregory was the principal celebrant and homilist of the liturgy at the Cathedral of St. Matthew the Apostle in Washington, D.C. He urged the faithful “to reflect in prayer on this weighty moral question of our day” of capital punishment.

“Taking the life of one who has taken another’s life is most assuredly just another link in the horror of violence of which there is far too much in our world,” Cardinal Gregory said. “The pastors of the Church are challenging us all to consider other means to protect society that do not include the destruction of another life.”

“We are not seeking the wholesale release of murders and dangerous criminals back into society. We are not urging our nation to neglect its obligation to protect its citizens. We are not suggesting that dangerous people are not dangerous people,” Cardinal Gregory stressed. “We are, however, beseeching Catholics everywhere to consider carefully the impact that capital punishment has on us as a society.”

Due to ongoing worries about COVID-19, attendance at the liturgy was less than in past years. Slightly more than 200 people sat socially distanced throughout the cathedral, with more than 100 people watching remotely via social media.

Cardinal Gregory acknowledged that those who have suffered the loss of a loved one to violence “must continue to live with a sorrow and a suffering that defies human expression,” and “they have every right to find comfort, support, understanding, and solace from those who bear the name Christian.”

“People who have been victims of crime or who have lost a loved one to an act of violence must remain uppermost in all of our hearts,” he said. “The question to be considered, however, is how does the taking of another life add to their comfort and consolation?”

He said Catholics and all people of good will “must be deeply concerned about the fairness of our criminal justice systems… A disproportionate number of today’s prisoners are young, people of color, Hispanic, destitute, and for the most part poorly educated. We must all be deeply disturbed to consider that our judicial systems are unjust to the poor, the illiterate, the mentally impeded, or those who lack the means to speak sufficiently for and about themselves.”

During the liturgy, the Passion of Jesus Christ according to the Gospel of John was proclaimed. 

Referring to the Gospel account of Barabbas being the prisoner whom Pilate set free in place of Jesus as a sign of Roman clemency during Passover, Cardinal Gregory said, “Good Friday’s message is clear and quite simple – an innocent man went to His death rather than a guilty one. The blameless suffered for the guilty.”

“Equally clear is the fact that you and I in truth are Barabbas. We have all been set free because of the death of the Innocent,” he said. “Good Friday is a day during the Church year when we realize how capricious criminal justice can be. Pilate’s gesture of mercy was extended to the wrong man. God’s divine justice – which is perfect — was satisfied by the death of His own Son thus making it possible for all of us to become God’s sons and daughters.”

Because Good Friday commemorates Jesus's sacrificial death on the cross, it is traditionally marked by fasting, penance, prayer and public veneration of the cross by the faithful. Masses are not celebrated in Catholic churches on Good Friday, and the liturgy did not include consecration of the Holy Eucharist. Communion was distributed from hosts consecrated the night before.

As part of the liturgy, solemn intercessions were prayed, including petitions for the Church, the pope, priests and ministers, catechumens, for the unity of the Christian faith, for those of the Jewish faith, for those of no faith, for those in public office, for all who suffered or died during the pandemic, and other intentions.

This year, a special intention was added for an end to the war in Ukraine and for the people of Ukraine that God “may grant them safety from all harm, courage in the face of suffering, and an end to all war.”

“Almighty ever-living God, who crush wars and cast down the proud, be pleased to banish violence swiftly from the midst of your people and to wipe away all tears, so that we, who trust in your protection, may not fear the weapons of any foe,” the cardinal prayed.

Prior to the veneration of the cross, Cardinal Gregory held aloft a crucifix and processed through the cathedral. Three times he intoned, “Behold the wood of the Cross, on which hung the salvation of the world.”

The tradition of venerating the cross dates back to the late 4th century when St. Helen, the mother of Emperor Constantine, discovered a fragment of wood believed to be from Christ’s cross on a pilgrimage to Jerusalem. The faithful came forward to reverence the cross in a sign of respect, and the tradition continues to this day. At the cathedral, the faithful bowed or genuflected in reverence before the crucifix.

At the end of the liturgy, Cardinal Gregory prayed that God would bestow His “abundant blessing” on the faithful “who have honored the death of your Son in the hope of their resurrection: may pardon come, comfort be given, holy faith increase, and everlasting redemption be made secure.”

Keeping with the somber tone of the day, the liturgy ended solemnly with Cardinal Gregory and other participants departing from the altar in reverential silence.

The remainder of Cardinal Gregory’s Easter schedule is as follows:

On Holy Saturday April 16, he will celebrate a livestreamed (https://youtu.be/pisScKULK80) Easter Vigil at St. Matthew’s Cathedral at 8 p.m.

Then on Easter Sunday April 17, the cardinal will celebrate a livestreamed (https://youtu.be/jlUVgak5uh4) Mass at the cathedral at 9 a.m.

Later on Easter Sunday, Cardinal Gregory will celebrate a noon Mass at the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception that will be televised on the Eternal Word Television Network and livestreamed on the basilica’s YouTube channel that can be linked through the National Shrine’s website at www.nationalshrine.org.