LIFESITENEWS.COM VIDEO AND REPORT: PETERBOROUGH, Ontario, April 24, 2011 (LifeSiteNews.com) - Every Good Friday for the past 7 years the youth of the diocese of Peterborough, Ontario have put on an elaborate, heartfelt enactment of Christ’s Passion and Way of the Cross. They begin within the cathedral, later enact the condemning of Christ in front of the cathedral and then slowly proceed for a considerable distance through the city downtown to another church for the crucifixion scenes. Stations of the cross are enacted at intersections along the way.
68 actors took part in this year’s Way of the Cross with 28 more youth involved in many behind the scenes aspects of the annual event, directed this year by Mary Helen Moes, program manager for youth for the diocese of Peterborough. The idea for the Way of the Cross came from the youth themselves.
As part of the initial proceedings inside the cathedral of St. Peter-in-Chains, 16-year old Wayside Academy student Maria DeCiccio, with the accompaniment of a recorded songtrack, performed achilling rendition of the song, Via Dolorosa (The Way of Suffering). The song retells the story of Christ’s climb to Calvary.
Maria sang from the side of the Church, hidden by a number of pillars which caused a good number of worshipers to think that they were hearing a recorded voice. They were later amazed when told that the singing was done live by a young girl from their community.
Peterborough bishop Nicola De Angelis actively takes part in the event every year, walking the entire distance right behind the performers. Di Angelis is known for his outspoken pro-life views and strong defense of all aspects of authentic Catholic faith and morality.
The LifeSiteNews video recording of this event was done on a small personal digital photo camera that happens to also take video. There was no intention of producing a video, but the quality of the recording was found to be surprisingly good enough to produce the short amateur production conveying the sense of this moving event.
The music from the movie, “The Passion of Christ”, was not added to the video. It was played from a sound truck during the procession as it moved through the streets and so all the audio in the video is as it was during the procession, except for the voice over of Maria’s singing for the duration of her song.
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