The prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith is the latest person whom John Paul II has requested to write the meditations for the annual Holy Week event.
Father André Louf, a Belgian Cistercian monk, wrote the reflections last year.
Vatican news correspondents wrote the meditations in 2002. Others selected by John Paul II have included theologians such as Hans Urs von Balthasar, bishops and members of other churches such as Orthodox Patriarch Bartholomew I of Constantinople.
The Vatican has not said whether John Paul II will participate in this year’s procession.
Vatican spokesman Joaquín Navarro Valls said Thursday that Holy Father’s Holy Week schedule «will be studied after his return to the Vatican.»