Expressing “strong outrage,” Bishop Vitalii Kryvytskyi of Kyiv-Zhytomyr has joined the head of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church in criticizing the format of the papal Via Crucis at the Colosseum. The Pope’s nuncio in Ukraine has also distanced himself from the inclusion of Russians at the meditation for the 13th station.

In a separate statement, the vice rector of the Ukrainian Catholic University said that “the cross of Abel and the cross of Cain are different crosses.”