JERUSALEM (AP) – Christians in the Holy Land marked Good Friday without the massive pilgrimages commonly seen in the days leading up to Easter due to the coronavirus, and worshipers in many other predominantly Christian countries where the virus is still raging have their second annual holy day observed. Week with strict restrictions on meetings.
Many holy places were open in Jerusalem, thanks to an ambitious Israeli vaccination campaign. It was in stark contrast to last year, when the city was closed. In neighboring Lebanon, Christians celebrated Good Friday under a lockdown and suffered 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 that reenacted the crucifixion of Jesus Christ. At the Vatican, Pope Francis led a torch-lit Stations of the Cross ceremony in St. Peter’s Square, forgoing the traditional Colosseum procession for the second year that draws thousands of pilgrims, tourists and Romans.
Worshipers in the Philippines and France marked a second annual holy week under movement restrictions amid outbreaks sparked by more contagious species. In the US, officials urged Christians to celebrate outdoors, at a social distance, or in virtual ceremonies.
In the Old City of Jerusalem, Franciscan monks in brown robes led hundreds of worshipers through the Via Dolorosa, returning to the tradition that was Jesus’ last steps, reciting prayers through loudspeakers in the Stations of the Cross. Another group carried a large wooden cross, sang hymns, and stopped to offer prayers.
Religious sites were open to a limited number of believers. Built on the site where Christians believe Jesus was crucified, died, and rose from the dead, the Church of the Holy Sepulcher was open to visitors with masks and social aloofness.
Despite one of the world’s most successful vaccination campaigns, air travel to and from Israel is still limited by quarantine and other restrictions, keeping the foreign pilgrims who usually throng in Jerusalem during Holy Week at bay. In recent years, tens of thousands of pilgrims have come to the city’s holy sites.
“In normal years we encourage people to come out. Last year we told people to stay at home, ”said Wadie Abunassar, an adviser to Church leaders in the Holy Land. “This year we are somehow quiet.”
“We need to pray for those who cannot be here,” said Alejandro Gonzalez, a Mexican living in Israel. “Those of us who can be here have a responsibility to keep them in mind and to walk this Way of the Cross wherever they go.”
In Lebanon, Christians celebrated Good Friday amid a severe economic crisis aggravated by the massive explosion that devastated parts of the capital last year. Even traditional Easter sweets are a luxury few can afford.
“People don’t even talk about the party,” said Majida Al Asaily, owner of a sweet shop in Beirut. “We have never seen anything like it, despite the war and other difficulties we had experienced before.”
In the Vatican, candles that flared in a breeze were placed in a circle around the central obelisk of St. Peter’s Square and along a path that led to steps outside St. Peter’s Basilica. There, Francis sat under a canopy in the darkness one warm evening, listening to children read meditations curated by other children recounting sad events in their lives.
One child wrote about loneliness during the COVID-19 pandemic, not being able to visit grandparents to protect them from contamination and missing classmates and teachers, as schools in Italy have been closed for a long time due to lockdown. Another wrote about grandfather who died of COVID-19 without relatives in a hospital.
At one point, Francis prayed that God would give people his hope so that “we can recognize you even in the darkest moments of our lives.”
Anti-pandemic measures have devastated tourism in Italy and largely reduced religious pilgrimages to a trickle. Only a few hundred participants, including prelates, were allowed to attend.
In the US, believers of all denominations were urged to adhere to COVID-related capacity restrictions in places of worship, to observe online services, and to take precautions to wear masks and to distance themselves during open-air ceremonies.
The First Baptist Church branch in Medford, Wisconsin held graceful, low-key, and socially distant back office services that were broadcast via live stream.
George Myers, pastor of student ministry, turned their attention to the last thing Jesus said on the cross: “It is finished.” Those words were not about his death, but about his completion of the work for which he was sent, Myers said.
So FBC, don’t miss this. This is when Jesus undid the curse of sin and the curse of death, ”Myers assured his congregation.
At St. Anthony of Padua Catholic Church in Denver, revelers wearing face masks performed an elaborate outdoor reenactment of the Stations of the Cross with Roman soldiers on horseback and jubilant spectators wearing faux leather whips on a condemned Jesus Christ carrying a cross. Police officers escorted the entourage around 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 presided over a celebration of the Lord’s Passion at St. Patrick’s Cathedral, attended by masked clergy and worshipers. That service, an evening ceremony of the Stations of the Cross, and a reflection on the passion and death of Christ were broadcast on the Catholic channel on Sirius XM and livestream on the YouTube channel and the cathedral’s website.
“We may be separated by distance, but we are united in faith,” the archdiocese said in its invitation to Holy Week celebrations.
In France, a national curfew at 7 p.m. forced parishes to reschedule the Good Friday ceremonies during the day, and the traditional Catholic night processions were drastically scaled back or canceled. Nineteen departments in France are located where parishioners can attend Mass during the day if they sign the government’s ‘travel certificate’.
The fire-ravaged Notre Dame did not hold mass on Good Friday this year, but the cathedral’s “Crown of Thorns” was revered by the cathedral’s clergy in the new temporary liturgical center in the nearby church of Saint-Germain-l’Auxerrois.
In Spain there were no traditional processions for the second year in a row. Churches limited the number of worshipers. Many parishes went online with masses and prayers through video streaming services.
In the Philippines, the streets were eerily quiet and religious gatherings were prohibited in the capital Manila and four remote provinces. The government closed the bustling region of more than 25 million people this week as it tried to stem an alarming rise in COVID-19 cases.
The Philippines began reopening in hopes of reviving its ailing economy, but infections increased last month, apparently due to more contagious tensions, increased public mobility and complacency.
In Kenya, all churches were ordered to close as part of a ban on large gatherings to stem an worsening outbreak. Joseph Karinga went to his church and prayed outside the shutters of the doors, in a garden near a shrine to Mary.
“I’ll just say my rosary here and go home,” he said.
D’Emilio reported from Rome. Writers from Associated Press, 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.