JERUSALEM (AP) – Christians in the Holy Land marked Good Friday without the mass pilgrimages commonly seen in the days before Easter due to the coronavirus, and worshipers in many other predominantly Christian countries where the virus is still raging have their second annual Holy Week with strict restrictions on gatherings.
Many holy sites were open in Jerusalem, thanks to an ambitious Israeli vaccination campaign. It was a stark contrast to last year, when the city was under lock and key. In neighboring Lebanon, Christians kept Good Friday under lock and key and experienced a severe economic crisis.
In Latin America, penitents from Mexico and Guatemala to Paraguay carried tree branches covered with thorns and large crosses, in Passion Plays representing the crucifixion of Jesus Christ. At the Vatican, Pope Francis presented a torchlight procession of the Cross ceremony in St. Peter’s Square, while leading for a second year the traditional Colosseum procession that attracts thousands of pilgrims, tourists and Romans.
Worshipers in the Philippines and France marked a second annual Holy Week under movement restrictions amid outbreaks fueled by more contagious tribes. In the US, officials have encouraged Christians to celebrate outdoors while taking social distances or in virtual ceremonies.
In the Old City of Jerusalem, Franciscan brethren in brown robes led hundreds of worshipers along the Via Dolorosa, entering the tradition of Jesus’ last steps, reciting prayer through loudspeakers at the Cross Stations. Another group carried a large wooden cross, sang hymns, and stayed to pray.
Religious sites were open to a limited number of faithful. The Church of the Holy Sepulcher, built on the site where Christians believe Jesus was crucified, died and rose from the dead, was open to visitors with masks and social distance.
Despite one of the world’s most successful vaccination campaigns, air travel to and from Israel is still restricted by quarantine and other restrictions, which keep away the foreign pilgrims who usually crowd Jerusalem during Holy Week. In recent years, tens of thousands of pilgrims would descend on the sacred grounds of the city.
‘In ordinary years we appeal to people to come out. Last year we told people to stay home, ”said Wadie Abunassar, an adviser to Church leaders in the Holy Land. “This year we’re somehow quiet.”
“We must pray for those who cannot be here,” said Alejandro Gonzalez, a Mexican living in Israel. “Those of us who can be here have the responsibility to keep them in mind and also to go on this Crossroads through which they go.”
In Lebanon, Christians observed Good Friday amid a severe economic crisis exacerbated by the massive explosion that devastated parts of the capital last year. Even traditional Easter sweets are a luxury that few can afford.
“People don’t even talk about the festival,” says Majida Al Asaily, owner of a candy store in Beirut. “We have not seen anything of this year yet, despite the war and other problems we have faced before.”
At the Vatican, candles flickering in a breeze were placed in a circle around the central obelisk of St. Peter’s Square and along a path leading to stairs outside St. Peter ‘s Basilica. There, on a hot evening, Francis sits under a canopy in the dark, listening to children read meditations composed by other children and recounting sad episodes in their lives.
One child wrote about loneliness in the COVID-19 pandemic because he could not visit grandparents to protect them from infection and was missing schoolmates and teachers as schools in Italy were closed for a long time due to lockdown . Another one wrote about grandpa dying of COVID-19 without family members in a hospital.
At one point, Francis prayed that God would give people his hope so that “we will be able to recognize you even in the darkest moments of our lives.”
Anti-pandemic measures have devastated tourism in Italy and greatly reduced religious pilgrimages. Only a few hundred participants, including forerunners, were allowed to attend.
In the U.S., believers from all denominations have been encouraged to comply with COVID-related capacity constraints at houses of worship, to hold online services, and to take precautions for wearing masks and social distances during outdoor ceremonies.
The congregation of First Baptist Church in Medford, Wisconsin, held graceful, peaceful, and social distance services that were streamed live.
George Myers, pastor of student ministries, drew their attention to the last thing Jesus said on the cross, “It is finished.” The words were not about his death, but about the completion of the work to which he was sent, Myers said.
‘FBC, do not miss it. This is the moment when Jesus took away the curse of sin and the curse of death, ”Myers assured his congregations.
In St. Anthony of the Catholic Church of Padua in Denver, celebrants with face masks staged an extensive re-enactment of the Cross Stations with Roman soldiers on horseback and screaming spectators with false whips on a condemned Jesus Christ carrying a cross. Police officers escorted the entourage through the neighborhood while church workers handed out face masks to those not wearing them in the crowd of spectators.
In New York, Archbishop Timothy Dolan chaired a celebration of the Lord’s passion in St. Patrick’s Cathedral which was attended by masked clergy and worshipers. This service, a Stations of the Cross evening ceremony and a reflection on the passion and death of Christ, was broadcast live on Sirius XM on the Catholic Channel and streamed live on the cathedral’s YouTube channel and website.
“We may be separated at a distance, but we are united in the faith,” the archdiocese said in its invitation to celebrate Holy Week.
In France, a nationwide evening clock 19:00 forced congregations to continue Good Friday ceremonies, while the traditional Catholic night marches were drastically scaled down or canceled. Nineteen departments in France have been locked down locally, where congregation members can attend daycare if they sign the government’s travel voucher ‘.
The fire-ravaged Notre Dame did not hold a Good Friday Mass, but the “Crown of Thorns” of the cathedral is honored by the clergy of the cathedral in its new temporary liturgical center in the nearby church of Saint-Germain-l ‘ Auxerrois.
In Spain, for the second year in a row, there were no traditional marches. Churches have limited the number of worshipers. Many congregations have been offered online with Mass and prayers via video streaming services.
In the Philippines, streets were strangely quiet and religious gatherings were banned in the capital, Manila, and four remote provinces. The government closed the busy region of more than 25 million people again this week as it scrambled to contain a worrying boom in COVID-19 cases.
The Philippines began reopening in hopes of revitalizing the afflicted economy, but infections escalated last month, apparently due to more contagious strains, increased public mobility and complacency.
In Kenya, all churches have been ordered to close as part of a ban on large gatherings to contain a worse outbreak. In any case, Joseph Karinga went to his church and prayed outside the shuttered doors, in a garden near a shrine to Mary.
“I’ll just say my rosary here and go home,” he said.
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D’Emilio reports from Rome. Associated Press authors Zeina Karam in Beirut, Nicole Winfield in Rome, Thomas Adamson in Leeds, England, Aritz Parra in Madrid, David Zalubowski in Denver and Jim Gomez in Manila, Philippines contributed.