Pope Francis marked a surreal Palm Sunday in an empty St Peter’s Basilica yesterday, urging people living through the COVID-19 pandemic not to be so concerned with what they lack, but how they can ease the suffering of others.
The service, starting Holy Week events leading to Easter, usually attracts tens of thousands of people to a St Peter’s Square bedecked with olive and palm trees.
The Mass normally includes a long procession of cardinals, priests and faithful carrying palm fronds.
Photo: AP
This time, it was held from a secondary altar behind the main one Francis normally uses and attended by only about two dozen people, including a few aides, nuns and a scaled-down choir, all practicing social distancing.
The symbolic procession was only several meters long and a few potted olive trees were brought in.
The Mass was broadcast on television and over the Internet to many millions.
Photo: AFP
Churches in countries around the world were holding similar, virtual services this week because of restrictions on gatherings.
Cutting a solitary figure, Francis listened as three priests read the gospel account of Jesus’ entry into Jerusalem and being hailed as the messiah.
In his sermon, Francis urged his listeners to turn to God “in the tragedy of a pandemic, in the face of the many false securities that have now crumbled, in the face of so many hopes betrayed, in the sense of abandonment that weighs upon our hearts.”
The pandemic could help transform fear into service, he said.
The Vatican has been in its own lockdown, mostly mirroring that in Italy, where more than 15,500 people have died since the outbreak of the COVID-19 epidemic in northern Italy on Feb. 21.
“The tragedy we are experiencing summons us to take seriously the things that are serious, and not to be caught up in those that matter less; to rediscover that life is of no use if not used to serve others. For life is measured by love,” Francis said.
“May we reach out to those who are suffering and those most in need. May we not be concerned about what we lack, but what good we can do for others,” he said.
All of the pope’s Holy Week services, which normally draw tens of thousands of pilgrims and tourists to Rome, are to take place in the empty basilica in a scaled-down version.
Meanwhile, in Jerusalem, Franciscan friars wearing surgical masks and gloves made house calls yesterday, delivering olive branches to Christians who are self-isolating as a precaution against the coronavirus.
One of the friars used a loud-hailer in the streets of the walled Old City to summon people to their front doors and windows, where they received branches and blessings.
In the Philippines, priests delivered blessings from the back of trucks and motorized tricycles as residents in Manila and other cities lined up in front of their homes.
The priests made signs of the cross as they rolled past waving residents.
Additional reporting by AFP
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