'Rediscover shame'

Pope Francis led Roman Catholics in Good Friday services under tight security, urging people, including ministers of his Church, to rediscover the capacity to feel shame for their role in the world's ills.

Francis, 81, presided at a traditional Via Crucis (Way of the Cross) procession around Rome's ancient Colosseum attended by 20,000 people on the day that Christians commemorate Jesus' death by crucifixion.

Francis wove his comments, made at the end of the torchlight service, around the themes of shame and repentance, conjuring up the image of a modern world where pride, arrogance and selfishness often trump humility and generosity.

Good Friday, the most sombre day of the Christian liturgical calendar, commemorates the day the Bible says Jesus was crucified. The Way of the Cross service marks 14 events, called stations, from the time Roman governor Pontius Pilate condemns Jesus to death until his burial in a tomb.

Francis said many people in the world today should feel "shame for having lost a sense of shame", adding that shame could be seen as a "grace" from God.

He said many should feel "shame because our generations are leaving young people a world that is fractured by divisions and wars, a world devoured by selfishness ..."

The leader of the world's 1.2 billion Roman Catholics praised those in the Church who are trying to arouse "humanity's sleeping conscience" through their work helping the poor, immigrants, and prison inmates.