By: Kathleen Sellers
Cincinnati, OH – Each year, two days before Easter Sunday, Christians around the world commemorate Good Friday, the day on which Jesus is believed to have been crucified, died, and buried. While many Christians call this day “good,” because it commemorates the essential step toward Jesus’ resurrection from death and conquering of sin, it is a very somber day, a time to remember (and repent from) human sinfulness and the structures of injustice through which we contribute to the suffering of others.
Traditionally, many Christians will attend a prayer service on this day, during which the story of Jesus’s suffering and death will be recounted. That story includes a painful journey, in which Jesus was forced to carry his own cross, the weapon of his execution, up to the top of Calvary, the hill where he was then publicly executed by his Roman captors.
For Christians in Cincinnati, though, this is not just a day of somber prayer but also one of pilgrimage. For more than a century and a half, Catholics have been coming to “The Steps” in Mt. Adams, to commemorate Good Friday. Starting just before midnight, people will gather along St. Gregory street, below Holy Cross Immaculata Church, waiting to pray their way to the crucifix, which stands outside the entrance to the church. This line would persist throughout the 24 hours of Good Friday, a constant remembrance of Jesus’ own journey up Calvary.
As a child, I remember waiting in line with my mother and a small group of fellow Catholics, as the pastor of Immaculata blessed The Steps at midnight and then led us in praying the rosary, one prayer on each step, as we gradually ascended the hillside toward the church. This was a ritual I knew well. My mother had come to The Steps with her mother in the 1960s, a journey that brought them by train from Eastern Kentucky into the big city of Cincinnati. I never had the chance to meet that grandmother before she died, but I always felt closer to her on Good Friday, as I walked the steps with my mom, knowing this pilgrimage was a tradition we shared.
This year, thousands of pilgrims made their way, again, to Mt. Adams. As I turned onto St. Gregory Street, a few minutes before midnight, I was surprised to see a large crowd was already gathered, filling the sidewalk for a block in both directions, waiting for the blessing of The Steps to mark the start of the pilgrim ascent. Normally, the volume of pilgrims begins as a trickle at midnight and swells mid-day on Friday, from 12-3pm, during the traditional window when Jesus is belived to have hung on the cross. This evening, though, several hundred, at least, were waiting patiently, perhaps drawn by the presence of the new Archbishop of Cincinnati, Robert G. Casey, who was appointed by Pope Francis in February of this year. Archbishop Casey, fresh off his installation mass a week prior, led the blessing of The Steps, before joining the faithful, climbing The Steps behind a young clergyman, who led the people in praying the rosary, as the crowd made its way, one Hail Mary at a time, up the hillside.
Twelve hours later, Catholic pilgrims were still climbing The Steps, as an ecumenical group of Christians gathered in Smale Park, to walk The Way of the Cross for Justice. Since the 1980s, this prayer service has brought together a wide variety of faith-based organizations and religious communities to commemorate Good Friday through, according to event sponsor Ignite Peace, intentionally “connecting the suffering of Jesus with the suffering brought about by injustice in our day.” This year’s prayer service focused on the struggles faced by the immigrant community in Cincinnati. Several religious congregations and communities contributed to the walking prayer service, reflecting in stages about the different struggles faced by immigrants – from access to healthcare to freedom from political oppression. At each “station,” lay and ordained faith leaders shared testimony about the kinds of ministries they engage in and reminded the faithful of the many tangible ways that they could likewise support outreach to immigrants.
This invitation was especially prescient this year, as immigrants have been targeted by the current Presidential Administration, which has rescinded policies that honor the sanctuary religious congregations have long offered immigrants. So concerning are these times that even Pope Francis, may he rest in peace, spent some of his last days advocating for the wellbeing of migrants in the United States. On February 10, 2025, he wrote to US Bishops, to remind them that Jesus was “expelled from his own land because of an imminent risk to his life, and… [took] refuge in a society and a culture foreign to his own” and to “exhort all the faithful of the Catholic Church, and all men and women of good will, not to give in to narratives that discriminate against and cause unnecessary suffering to our migrant and refugee brothers and sisters. With charity and clarity we are all called to live in solidarity and fraternity, to build bridges that bring us ever closer together”.
As members of numerous generations, denominations, cultures, and countries prayed together– walking as pilgrims up The Steps and along the Ohio River–it was truly a Good Friday to remember who we are, neighbors united in love for God and one another.
