modified version<\/a> of the route ran from St. Mary’s University to the Father Lacombe Care Centre in southeast Calgary.<\/p>\nTemporary road closures will be in place along the route as the procession passes through downtown, the diocese said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
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The 2026 Way of the Cross procession will follow a route starting and ending at St. Mary’s Cathedral on 18th Ave. S.W. It begins at 8:30 a.m. on Friday. (Roman Catholic Diocese of Calgary)<\/p>\n
Also referred to as the Stations of the Cross, the outdoor walk involves stops at 14 stations, which the diocese says commemorate Jesus Christ’s last day on Earth as a man.\u00a0<\/p>\n
At each station, worshippers pause to meditate and recall an event from that day, while also reciting specific prayers.<\/p>\n
“It’s a way for us during this Easter time to really spiritually identify with Christ and with those who are suffering,” McGratten said.<\/p>\n
![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/1775177684_618_default.jpg\")
Participants gather outside of St. Mary’s Cathedral in southwest Calgary for the Way of the Cross procession on April 18, 2025. (Bandi Szakony\/Roman Catholic Diocese of Calgary)<\/p>\n
Last year’s procession drew more than 2,500 participants, with the diocese expecting roughly the same turnout this year.<\/p>\n
McGrattan said while the procession comes from the Catholic denomination, it is open to everyone.<\/p>\n
“It does have the power of recognizing that we’re really walking for reconciliation, for healing, for peace in the world,” McGrattan said. “It’s really a demonstration that shouldn’t necessarily be Catholic, but it should be embraced by people of goodwill who really seek those same values for society and the world.”<\/p>\n
The procession begins at St. Mary’s Cathedral, 219 18th Ave. S.W., at 8:30 a.m.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Listen to this article Estimated 2 minutes The audio version of this article is generated by AI-based technology.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":578496,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[194293],"tags":[49,2798,48],"class_list":{"0":"post-578495","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-calgary","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-calgary","10":"tag-canada"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/578495","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=578495"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/578495\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/578496"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=578495"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=578495"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=578495"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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