(STL.News) For a second year, Catholics around the world are observing Good Friday during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Pope Francis prostrated himself on the floor of St. Peter’s Basilica on Friday to pray at a scaled-down “Passion of the Lord” service commemorating Jesus’ last hours of life and his crucifixion.
“Almighty and eternal God, provident refuge of the suffering, look with compassion on the affliction of your children who suffer from this pandemic,” Francis said.
The pope began leading church services in Vatican City on April 1, all scaled down due to the novel coronavirus, with a Holy Thursday mass leading to Easter.
Plus, carrying wooden crosses and singing hymns, Christians held a procession along the Via Dolorosa in the Old City of Jerusalem, marking Good Friday on April 2 by retracing what they believe was the route that Jesus Christ took to his crucifixion.
And in Paris, Catholics followed the Way of the Cross on Friday, praying for their families and their trials as coronavirus pandemic continues to claim victims in France. In the Good Friday rite, worshippers usually join a procession that follows the 14 “stations of the Cross” that recount Christ’s passion.