Boulevard of tears for biblical re-enactment

Thousands of praying and crying Catholics line Toronto street for Stations of the Cross

By MICHAEL VALPY, RELIGION AND ETHICS REPORTER, The Globe and Mail
With a report from Allan Woods
Saturday, July 27, 2002

In a spectacular World Youth Day enactment of the Catholic Stations of the Cross, 25-year-old Robert Légère, as Jesus, was condemned to death outside Toronto City Hall, whipped and abused as he carried his cross past financial towers and research hospitals and crucified and buried outside the Ontario Legislature at Queen's Park.

The Pope wrote the script used by Mr. Légère and a cast of young amateur actors who played soldiers, officials, members of a Jerusalem mob and other characters from the biblical narrative of Jesus's execution.

Rev. Robert Gendreau, a Montreal priest and former professional actor, directed the production. The Pope, resting on an island owned by Basilian priests in Ontario's cottage country, followed the devotional exercises on a large-screen television provided by the CBC. The Pope studied drama as a student.

Father Gendreau said he chose Mr. Légère, who has never acted, because of "the classic lines in his face, his simplicity, his kind of beauty."

Police estimated 150,000 people gathered at Queen's Park alone for the conclusion of the pageant.

An American attending World Youth Day, Steve Fekete, 17, said he'd never before seen a dramatized version of the Stations of the Cross. "It's a powerful thing," he said, adding that it was even more significant because the Pope wrote the script.

Spectators scaled trees and stood on flower boxes lining the avenue. Rain began falling at precisely the moment that the procession began.

The Stations of the Cross are perhaps the most familiar Catholic devotional exercise, at which the faithful focus their prayers successively on 14 scenes of what is known as Jesus's Passion -- from the Latin word passio, meaning "suffering."

The exercise originated in ancient times with pilgrims visiting Jerusalem to follow what they believed to be the route Jesus took from His condemnation to death by the Roman governor, Pontius Pilate, to His execution on a hill outside the old walled city.

Not everyone could afford to make the pilgrimage, and, from time to time, fighting over Jerusalem's holy places between Christian crusaders and Muslim Saracens made pilgrimages impossible. Thus, by the 12th century, pictoral representations of the last events of Jesus's life appeared in churches across Europe.

There was considerable debate through the Middle Ages about both the title and number of stations. The number 14 was accepted as the standard in the 17th century and subsequently confirmed by papal pronouncements.

The stations are marked by plaques in today's old city of Jerusalem, and a church has been built on the supposed site where Jesus was buried. Twentieth-century archeological research has largely established that the path is historically inaccurate.

The stations on University Avenue were large, visually powerful tableaus mounted about one metre above ground so that the crowds along the street could see what was happening. The Pope's script was written as a meditation on each of the stations. The narrative was in English, French, Italian and Spanish. The music ranged from J. S. Bach's Passion According to St. Matthew to songs from the French Taizé spiritual movement.

In recent years, fresh controversy has invaded the tradition.

Modern liturgists argue that the Passion of Jesus must end with his resurrection to divine life -- the central tenet of Christian faith -- not his crucifixion. Thus there has been a campaign for a 15th station.