JERUSALEM (AP) – Christians in the Holy Land marked Good Friday without the mass pilgrimages commonly seen in the days leading up to Easter because of the coronavirus, and worshipers in many other predominantly Christian countries where the virus is still raging have observed their second annual celebration Week with strong restrictions on meetings.
In Jerusalem, many sacred sites have been opened, thanks to an ambitious Israeli vaccination campaign. It was a stark contrast to last year, when the city was closed. In neighboring Lebanon, Christians observed Good Friday under a blockade and suffering a severe economic crisis.
In Latin America, penitents from Mexico and Guatemala to Paraguay carried tree branches covered with thorns and large crosses in pieces of passion, representing the crucifixion of Jesus Christ. At the Vatican, Pope Francis presided over a torch-lit ceremony on the Via Sacra in St. Peter’s Square, preceding for the second year the traditional procession of the Colosseum that attracts thousands of pilgrims, tourists and Romans.
Worshipers in the Philippines and France scheduled a second annual Holy Week under movement restrictions amid outbreaks fueled by more contagious tensions. In the United States, authorities encouraged Christians to celebrate outdoors, during social distance or in virtual ceremonies.
In the Old City of Jerusalem, Franciscan friars in brown robes led hundreds of the faithful along the Via Dolorosa, redoing what tradition says were the final steps of Jesus, while reciting prayers through loudspeakers on the Via Dolorosa. Another group carried a large wooden cross, singing hymns and stopping to say prayers.
Religious sites were opened to a limited number of believers. The Church of the Holy Sepulcher, built on the spot 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 most successful vaccination campaigns in the world, air travel to and from Israel is still limited by quarantine and other restrictions, keeping out foreign pilgrims who often fill Jerusalem during Holy Week. In recent years, tens of thousands of pilgrims have descended on the city’s sacred sites.
“In normal years, we encourage people to introduce themselves. Last year, we told people to stay home, ”said Wadie Abunassar, an advisor to Church leaders in the Holy Land. “This year we are somewhat silent.”
“We have to pray for those who cannot be here,” said Alejandro Gonzalez, a Mexican who lives in Israel. “Those of us who may be here have a responsibility to keep them in mind and to follow this Way of the Cross that they are going through.”
In Lebanon, Christians observed Good Friday in the midst of a serious economic crisis exacerbated by the huge explosion that demolished parts of the capital last year. Even traditional Easter sweets are a luxury that few can afford.
“People don’t even talk about the party,” says Majida Al Asaily, who owns a bakery in Beirut. “We have not witnessed anything like this year, despite the war and other difficulties we faced before.”
In the Vatican, candles fluttering in the breeze were placed in a circle around the central obelisk of St. Peter’s Square and along a path that led to a staircase outside St. Peter’s Basilica. There, Francis sat under a canopy in the darkness on a warm night, listening to children reading meditations composed by other children who told sad episodes in their lives.
One child wrote about loneliness in the COVID-19 pandemic, not being able to visit grandparents to keep them safe from contagion and losing schoolmates and teachers, as schools in Italy were closed for long periods due to the blockade. Another wrote about his grandfather dying of COVID-19 without family members in a hospital.
At one point, Francis prayed that God would give people his hope that “we can recognize him even in the darkest moments of our lives”.
Anti-pandemic measures devastated tourism in Italy and greatly reduced religious pilgrimages. Only a few hundred participants, including prelates, were allowed to attend.
In the United States, worshipers of all denominations were urged to comply with COVID-related capacity restrictions in houses of worship, observe online services, and wear masks and precautions for social distance in outdoor ceremonies.
The First Baptist Church congregation in Medford, Wisconsin, held elegant, discreet and socially distant indoor services that were broadcast live.
George Myers, pastor of the student ministry, focused his attention on the last thing Jesus said on the cross: “It is finished.” Those words were not about His death, but about the completion of the work He was sent to do, Myers said.
“So FBC, don’t miss it. This is the moment when Jesus undid the curse of sin and the curse of death, ”Myers assured his congregants.
At the Saint Anthony of Padua Catholic Church in Denver, celebrants wearing masks performed an elaborate external staging of the Stations of the Cross with Roman soldiers on horseback and curious scoffers using faux leather whips on a condemned Jesus Christ carrying a cross. Police officers escorted the entourage through the neighborhood while church officials handed out masks to those who did not wear them in the crowd of onlookers.
In New York, Archbishop Timothy Dolan presided over a Celebration of the Lord’s Passion in St. Patrick’s Cathedral, attended by clergy and worshipers wearing masks. This service, an evening ceremony at the Stations of the Cross and a reflection on the passion and death of Christ were broadcast on Sirius XM’s Catholic Channel and broadcast live on the channel and on the cathedral’s YouTube website.
“We may be separated by distance, but we are united in the Faith,” said the archdiocese in his invitation to Holy Week celebrations.
In France, a 7pm curfew across the country forced parishes to postpone Good Friday ceremonies during the day, traditional Catholic night processions have been drastically reduced or canceled. Nineteen departments in France are located in confinements, where parishioners can attend day mass if they sign the government’s “travel certificate”.
Notre Dame, devastated by fire, did not hold a Good Friday mass this year, but the cathedral’s “Crown of Thorns” was being venerated by the cathedral clergy in its new temporary liturgical center in the neighboring church of Saint-Germain- l’Auxerrois.
In Spain, there were no traditional processions for the second consecutive year. Churches have limited the number of believers. Many parishes went online with masses and prayers through streaming video services.
In the Philippines, the streets were eerily quiet and religious meetings were banned in the capital, Manila, and in four remote provinces. The government put the bustling region of more than 25 million people back under lockdown this week as it struggled to contain an alarming increase in COVID-19 cases.
The Philippines began to reopen in the hope of bringing its economy to life, but infections increased last month, apparently because of more contagious tensions, increased public mobility and complacency.
In Kenya, all churches were forced to close as part of the ban on large meetings to contain the worsening outbreak. Joseph Karinga went to his church anyway and prayed outside the closed doors, in a garden near a sanctuary for Maria.
“I’m just going to say my rosary here and go home,” he said.
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D’Emilio reported from Rome. Associated Press writers 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.