It was on Good Friday in the heart of Old Montreal many years ago when, amid the quiet of faithful footsteps, John Zucchi had an interaction with a young girl he remembers to this day. 

“ I'll never forget walking in the streets when this mother and daughter stopped, and I saw that they were watching us. The daughter asked her mother in French, ‘What is this?’ The mother explained that it was a procession of people remembering Jesus and His death. The girl stopped and simply asked, 'Who is Jesus?' ” Zucchi recalled. 

Those moments of public witness during unified reflection on the Passion of Jesus Christ are what Communion and Liberation Canada could stand to lose as a public procession of faith in Quebec. While CL Canada’s Good Friday Way of the Cross event will return to Montreal streets on Easter weekend this year, led on April 3 by Archbishop Christian Lépine, provincial legislation threatens to make the 41st annual public procession through the city the final one. 

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The tradition remains this year, despite Quebec's Bill 9 currently in the committee stage for clause-by-clause consideration. The bill threatens to force groups who wish to pray in public in the ever-growing secular province to acquire a permit from a municipality to do so. Even so, Zucchi and the CL team remain unshaken, and relatively unconcerned. While the team has spoken about Bill 9's existence, he says CL Canada would simply do as the law requires, and reaffirms that the event’s simple gesture "in no way" intends to affront the government. 

“ I ask, what does it mean to pray? Is walking in silence prayer? Yes, I think it is. So too is to pray out loud, perform a gesture with a certain awareness, so in a certain way, everyone can be deemed as praying in public,” he said. 

"The city has always given us permission, the police force has always been really good to us, and so (even) if this law is in the background, we will follow the rules and go from there."  

CL Canada will certainly have the support of Lépine, who has been critical of Bill 9 since its introduction. In September 2025, Lépine made the argument that "at its core, to forbid public prayer would be somewhat like forbidding thought itself." 

He would go on to state that the proposal goes squarely against the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, Quebec’s own Charter of Human Rights and Freedoms and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. 

With the 41st annual Way of the Cross set to commence, The Catholic Register inquired about whether or not the annual tradition dear to so many is here to stay, even as Bill 9 creeps closer to becoming a reality. 

“As Archbishop Lépine always says when we ask him if he’ll lead it with us, ‘If it ain't broke, don't fix it,’ ” Zucchi said. "We plan to keep this a yearly Good Friday tradition in Montreal." 

Zucchi,  national director of Communion and Liberation Canada, said the Way of the Cross originated with CL founder Fr. Luigi Giussani just a few years after the movement began in Milan, Italy. Rather than a traditional 14-station Way of the Cross, the CL tradition offers a unique liturgy across five to eight stations, with prayer, silence and song interspersed across the communal pilgrimage. 

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It was in 1996 that the event made its way to Montreal, starting in the small Parc Angrignon with 20 people gathering in the pouring rain, a memory inaugural attendees still remember. After a few years, CL Canada moved the procession to the heart of Montreal in what Zucchi described as “a gesture of love towards the city.”

“It was in the early 2000s that we just changed the route slightly to what many know today, starting at Notre-Dame-de-Bon-Secours Chapel, founded by St. Marguerite Bourgeoys, before walking together to Notre Dame Basilica, St. Patrick's Basilica and Place Ville Marie’s open square before ending up at Mary Queen of the World Cathedral,” Zucchi said. 

At each of the churches, readings from the Passion and excerpts from French writer Charles Péguy are read with music, spanning from the Renaissance era to contemporary classics across different languages, sung. Mark Basik, director of the CL Choir, shared how the musical element has gone on to help shape the overall feel of the event. 

“Just last night we had a practice where I was really moved by the drama of these pieces that we sing, one of which is 'Eram Quasi Agnus,' where Jesus is essentially being led to His death,” he said. “The music of the event introduces us into the drama of what's happening here.”

Despite its grassroots start, the event has grown. Surprise post-COVID growth saw attendees increase from dozens to upwards of 600 to 700, before reaching 1,000 participants last year, not including those likely to join from the streets. 

"Every year I say there'll be fewer the next year, and then there are always more,” Zucchi said, hoping for similar record numbers this April.

Seen through the growth is the increased drama of the unique dichotomy of grand forms of music and prayer at each stop, coupled with what Zucchi describes as “complete silence” during the procession itself. 

It was in that silence that Paula Celani, who has attended since its inception, found part of herself during an intense personal period way back in 1996. 

“ I remember not being sure whether I should or shouldn't go, but I did out of friendship to someone who invited me. I was just in awe. I couldn't believe it. I remember thinking, ‘I've never seen anything like this,’ ” she said. 

“Each year it’s been a more profound experience for me. It's something I look forward to, and when it gets to this time of the year, it's like I can't wait to attend. Very simply, this event has become an urgent need for me.” 

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For Zucchi, he cherishes the beauty of what is ultimately a simple gesture in and of itself. During a time that many perceive as a sombre period, he understands that feeling is not the absence of Christ.

“ In this odd time when Christ is ‘absent’ and supposed to be harrowing hell, there is this moment of His presence being felt even more greatly,” he said.