Processions and services cancelled for Good Friday
CHRISTIANS commemorated Good Friday without the solemn church services or emotional processions of previous years in a world locked down by the coronavirus pandemic.
The chanting of a small group of clerics inside Jerusalem’s Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem echoed faintly through the heavy wooden doors, as a few people stopped and kneeled outside to pray.
The centuries-old church, built on the site where Christians believe Jesus was crucified, buried and rose from the dead, is usually packed with pilgrims and tourists.
Later, three monks in brown robes and blue surgical masks prayed at the stations of the cross along the Via Dolorosa, the ancient route through the Old City where Jesus is believed to have carried the cross before his execution at the hands of the Romans. It runs past dozens of shops, cafes, restaurants and hostels, nearly all of which are closed.
In ordinary times, tens of thousands of pilgrims from around the world retrace Jesus’s steps in the Holy Week leading up to Easter.
But this year, flights were grounded and religious sites in the Holy Land were closed as authorities try to prevent the spread of the virus.
James Joseph, a Christian pilgrim from Detroit, dubbed “the Jesus guy” because he wears robes and goes about barefoot, lives near the Church of the Holy Sepulchre year-round. On Friday morning he had the plaza outside to himself.
He said Good Friday had special meaning this year: “The crucifixion is the saddest thing possible, and (Jesus) felt what we feel right now,” he said. “But thanks be to God ... He rose from the dead and changed the world on Easter.”
In Rome, the torch-lit Way of the Cross procession at the Colosseum is a highlight of Holy Week, drawing large crowds of pilgrims, tourists and locals. It was cancelled this year, along with all other public gatherings in Italy, which is battling one of the worst outbreaks.
The virus has killed more than 18,000 people in Italy and over 95,000 worldwide, according to data gathered by Johns Hopkins University.
Instead of presiding over the