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this (most catholic) ritual of the way of the cross puts too much emphasis on the suffering, torment, anguish, crucifixion and death of Jesus Christ and not one single station is dedicated to the most monumental event ever in the history of mankind - that being the resurrection - which proved Christ was the ultimate victor over death and provided the same opportunity for those who choose to accept Him as Savior. you will find every catholic church with many crosses which depict a dead Christ and the parishioners with their crucifixes hanging from their necks with a dead Christ upon it. the cross that i see in my minds eye is 'empty' - a testimony to who Christ claimed to be. if He were still on the cross we would all be hopelessly lost.
i say add a few more stations which shows the hope and eternal blessings which Christ secured for us. easter is about new life (resurrection) and the promise of our Heavenly Father - not about death & agony.
don't get me wrong - remembering His death reminds us of what He was willing to do to pay for our sins - but it is only part of His story.

I understand your concern for recognizing the centrality of the Resurrection, Buz; but it is The Stations of the CROSS. It's purpose is to lead the believer through the events that led up to the crucifixion. The purpose of remembering the sufferings of Christ is to remind us of just how great a price he paid for our eternal redemption.

It wasn't just that he suffered and died on a cross - many hundreds of thousdands probably did that in ancient times: it was that he was inwardly suffering the guilt and spiritual agony of judgment - for all the elect.

I do agree with you that the Resurrection is the logical and implicit culmination of the Cross; but the purpose of the Stations is to focus in on the death of Jesus. It is mostly scriptural; wiht some elements of tradition thrwon in (Monica's facial impression, for example). We did a Protestantized version (no Hail Marys other doctirnal changes) of it a few years back for about four years running on Good Friday. We don't do it now, but it was always rather moving at that time.

I also agree that Roman Catholicism can focus too much on the cricified Christ, allowing it to become a kind of morbid fixation of a sorts. The Passion of the Christ movie was also cited for this, as you might recall. But it's really a matter of balance. After all, Paul cites the death of Jesus Christ in a number of important theological statements. "We preach Christ crucified" (not "resurrected" - although he certainly did not mean to slight that aspect, and preached the risen Christ as well).

The opposite error of overemphasizing the sufferings of the cross, is a kind of feel-good-all-the-time, pop Protestantism that focuses only on the up-beat heath-and-wealth "gospel." If we get our attention off the physical and spiritual agonies our sins imposed on the crucified Son of God, we can begin to take them too lightly and slide into sinful patterns that ultimately undo us. And if we dwell morbidly only on his physical agonies we can lose sight of the glorious victory of the Resurrection, with all that it means in the Christian experience.