Due to the Covid-19 pandemic, Pope Francis will not be celebrating the sacrament of baptism for babies this year in the Vatican’s Sistine Chapel.
By the writer of the Vatican News staff
Pope Francis will not hold the traditional infant baptism this year in the Vatican’s famous Sistine Chapel on Sunday, Jan. 10, due to the Covid-19 pandemic, the Holy See’s news agency announced Tuesday.
“Due to the health situation, as a precautionary measure, the traditional baptism of children under the direction of the Holy Father in the Sistine Chapel on the Sunday of the Baptism of the Lord will not be celebrated this year,” the Holy See news agency said. in a short note on Tuesday.
Instead, baptisms take place in the parishes to which they belong.
Long-running tradition
The tradition of baptizing children amid the splendor of Michelangelo frescoes in the Vatican’s Sistine Chapel, where popes are elected, was started by Pope St. John Paul II.
The Vatican’s website states that on January 11, 1981, the Feast of the Baptism of the Lord, the Polish Pope administered the baptism to 9 babies in the Vatican’s Pauline Chapel, which is separated from the Sistine Chapel by the Sala Regia. The following year, he baptized 13 newborn babies and, in 1983, 20 babies.
Last year, Pope Francis baptized 32 babies (17 boys and 15 girls), all of them children of Vatican employees.
In the liturgical calendar of the church, the feast of the baptism of Jesus marks the end of the Christmas period, which begins with Christmas Eve Mass.
Pandemic’s second wave
Numerous countries around the world, including in Europe, are grappling with a second wave of coronavirus infections, with governments trying to limit their spread by severely restricting movement and the gathering of people, especially during the current holiday season.
More than 75,000 people died in Italy, the highest number in the European countries. With more than 2.1 million total infections since the start of the pandemic, Italy ranks 4th after Russia, the UK and France.