VATICAN CITY (AP) – The most joyous holiday of Christianity worldwide was celebrated with believers sitting far apart in church pews and singing choirs of ‘Hallelujah’ through face masks on a second Easter Sunday, conditioned by pandemic precautions.
Worshipers from the Protestant churches in South Korea to St. Peter ‘s Basilica in the Vatican followed national or local regulations to prevent the transmission of the coronavirus.
In a hospital in the Lombardy region, where the pandemic first broke out in the West in February 2020, a hospital gave a traditional pigeon-shaped Easter cake symbolizing peace to every person taking a COVID-19 vaccine received. Many of those who came were in their eighties and accompanied by adult children.
In Jerusalem, air travel restrictions and quarantine regulations prevented foreign pilgrims from flocking to religious sites during Holy Week, culminating in Easter celebrations.
Inside St. Peter’s Basilica, Pope Francis sprinkled incense near an icon of Jesus, saying, “May the joy of Easter extend to the whole world.”
The 200 or so believers who were able to attend it got lost in the hollow cathedral. Normally, thousands would attend the popular service and a crowd would gather outside on St. Peter’s Square, with more than 100,000 who sometimes gathered to receive the pope’s special Easter blessing after Mass.
Pope Francis delivers his Urbi et Orbi blessing after the celebration of Easter Mass in St. Peter’s Basilica in the Vatican on Sunday 4 April 2021 during the Covid-19 coronavirus pandemic. (Filippo Monteforte / Pool photo via AP)
((Filippo Monteforte / photo of the pool via AP))
But this year, as last year, crowds are banned from gathering in Italy and in the Vatican. Francis therefore planned his Easter sermon on world affairs within the basilica.
Pope Francis wants to ‘live humbly’ in a ‘modest’ guesthouse for this reason, filmmakers revelations in doc.
The Italian government wanted to keep people at home during the three-day weekend, except for essential assignments such as shopping or exercise, to unwind the weeks of consecutive infections. Prime Minister Mario Draghi did concede. which during the long weekend allows one visit to family or friends a day in residents’ home regions, which includes Monday the Little Easter National Holiday.
In Jerusalem, the Easter service at the Church of the Holy Sepulcher was celebrated by the Latin Patriarch Pierbattista, the senior Roman Catholic clergyman in the Holy Land. The home in the Old City of Jerusalem is where many Christians believe that Jesus was crucified, buried and rose from the dead.
Israel has launched one of the world’s most successful vaccination campaigns, enabling the country to reopen restaurants, hotels and religious sites. Israel conquered the Old City, home to sacred sites of the three Abrahamic religions, in a 1967 war and later annexed it in a step not recognized by the international community.
In South Korea, Yoido Full Gospel Church, the largest Protestant church in the country, allowed only about 2,000 congregation members to attend Easter services, or about 17% of the capacity of the church’s main building. Masked church members sang hymns, clapped and prayed while the service was broadcast online and through Christian TV channels.
Myeongdong Catholic Cathedral in Seoul, the largest Catholic church in South Korea, limited mass attendance to 20% and voted the Easter service live on YouTube.
In the southern region of Puglia in Italy, the governor and many mayors urged the faithful to stay home and watch the mass on TV. The region is one of the many in Italy under the strictest ” red zone ‘restrictions due to the COVID-19 infection rate.
CLICK HERE FOR THE FOX NEWS APP
Attending a Saturday night is a popular practice for many people in Italy. But with the country under the evening clock from 10pm to 5pm, churches have shifted the traditional start times by a few hours. Church bells in Italy called people to services extraordinarily early and counted in some places before sunset.
A similar scenario is unfolding in France, stemming from a shocking increase in COVID-19 cases overtaking already strained hospitals. Some French churches held their traditional midnight Easter services just before dawn Sunday just before dawn on Sunday due to a nationwide evening clock from 7pm to 6pm.
___
AP reporters from around the world contributed.