Thousands of pilgrims from around the world joined the traditional Good Friday procession on the Via Dolorosa in Jerusalem's Old City, retracing the footsteps of Jesus to the 14 stations of the cross. Some worshippers hoisted big wooden crosses on their shoulders. The procession took place under the careful gaze of well-armed Israeli troops, but the atmosphere was calm. Fears of terrorism have kept pilgrims away the past four years, but in the wake of the Mideast cease-fire they’re coming back. “It’s great to be here in the place where Jesus walked, and I haven’t had a moment of fear,” Mark Jackson of Wichita, Kansas told “israel today.”