Pope Francis prostrates himself on the floor of a near-empty St Peter’s Basilica at the Vatican on Friday to pray at a “Passion of the Lord” service commemorating Jesus’s last hours of life and his crucifixion, an event scaled down by coronavirus restrictions.
The Good Friday service is one of the rare times when the Pope does not deliver a homily. A day earlier at the Holy Thursday Mass, the Pope had praised the doctors, nurses and priests who risk their lives helping corona virus victims as “the saints next door”. “These days more than 60 (priests) have died here in Italy while taking care of the sick, in hospitals,” the Pope said on Thursday.
“Together with the doctors and nurses they are the saints next door.”
On Good Friday, in another coronavirus- dictated change from the usual ritual, only the Pope kissed a crucifix at the end of the service. Usually it is also kissed by every cardinal, archbishop and bishop in the church. At night, the Pope was leading a Via Crucis (Way of the Cross) procession on the basilica’s outdoor steps in an empty St Peter’s Square. This is the first time the procession is not being held at Rome’s Colosseum since the modern-day tradition was re-introduced by Pope Paul VI in 1964.
