Vatican City - The Roman Catholic Church denounced the mockery of Christ, particularly representations of him as a homosexual, at the start of Good Friday celebrations in which ailing Pope John Paul II will at best be briefly present by video-link.
"Our time, obsessed as it is with sex, seems unable to portray Jesus in any other way than as a homosexual, or as one who taught that salvation is to be found in uniting with the feminine principle," said the pope's preacher, Raniero Cantalamessa, at a ceremony commemorating the passion, or pain, of Christ.
At the end of his reading, Cantalamessa dressed in the austere Franciscan frock, wished the pope a speedy recovery.
"Come back soon, Holy Father! Easter without you is not quite Easter," he said with affection.
During the ceremony in St. Peter's Basilica, the pilgrims joined in a special prayer for the pope.
"Let us pray ... that God who chose him to be bishop may give him health and strength to guide and govern God's holy people," said Cardinal James Francis Stafford, standing in for the pope who is confined to his apartment recovering from a throat operation.
It is the first time in his 26-year pontificate that the pope will be physically absent as this year's Easter ceremonies reached their most solemn moment.
Vatican sources said the 84-year-old pontiff, who suffers from Parkinson's disease and has had a tube inserted in his throat to ease his breathing, may make an appearance on giant television screens set up for the Way of the Cross ceremony at Rome's Colosseum Friday evening.
Hundreds of millions of people are likely to be watching on television as the late night ceremony was to be broadcast live by 54 television stations in 39 countries.
The pope has already missed the mass of the Last Supper on Thursday, and had to break the tradition he set in 1979 to hear the confessions of ordinary pilgrims on Good Friday morning at St. Peter's.
The recovering pontiff, who has not spoken in public since he was discharged from hospital on March 13, has sent repeated messages read out by his cardinals at the ceremonies, telling the faithful that he is with them "in spirit."
Although many pilgrims have expressed sadness and disappointment at the pope's absence, some faithful said the pope remained close to them.
"Who says we are without a pope (for Easter)?" said Katia Ponti of Rome. "We all hope he can participate in some way, but anyway he is always with us."
John Paul II broke with tradition at the start of his reign and transferred the Good Friday ceremony to the Colosseum -- a symbol of the persecution of Christians under the Roman Empire although historians say Christians were not actually martyred in the arena.
In Friday's ceremony, a crucifix representing the wooden cross that Jesus bore on the 14 stages towards his crucifixtion is carried by ordinary people chosen by the Vatican.
This year, it will be carried by people from Sudan, South Korea, India, and Sri Lanka, among others, before being passed for the last step or "station" to the pope's Vicar for the diocese of Rome, Cardinal Camillo Ruini.
The cross was carried by the pope until 2001, after which old age and Parkinson's forced him to watch the ceremony from the Palatine hill across the Colosseum.
Despite his ills, the Vatican has said he will perform his annual Urbi et Orbi (to the city and the world) blessing from his window overlooking St Peter's Square on Easter Sunday.
Vatican sources say the pope has been undergoing speech therapy ahead of the blessing in which he usually speaks in some 60 languages.