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By Matthew Perlman
Brooklyn Daily
Thousands of Christian faithful marched across the Brooklyn Bridge on April 18 to commemorate Good Friday.
The Way of the Cross is an annual procession from Saint James Cathedral-Basilica, on Cathedral Place between Jay Street and Flatbush Avenue Extension, to Saint Peter’s Church in Manhattan. It is led by a parishioner carrying a large wooden cross, and is supposed to emulate the story of Jesus Christ’s torturous walk to get crucified. Cardinal Timothy Dolan and Brooklyn Bishop Nicholas DiMarzio took part in this year’s solemn cavalcade, though Dolan jumped in a car to make the noon mass at Saint Patrick’s Cathedral across the East River.
The tradition started in Italy, but first surfaced in New York in 1996 with a handful of followers from the Movement of Communion and Liberation. The mostly silent march has grown to a massive procession that shuts the bridge to bike commuters.