Pope Francis on Friday took the extraordinary step of delivering a blessing in an empty Saint Peter’s Square in Vatican City, blessing Catholics around the world who are suffering amid the coronavirus pandemic.

The pope had some grim words about the novel coronavirus.

“Thick darkness has gathered over our squares, our streets and our cities; it has taken over our lives, filling everything with a deafening silence and a distressing void, that stops everything as it passes by,” he said. “We find ourselves afraid and lost.”

The pope called attention to humanity’s failures and lack of faith before the pandemic.

“We have gone ahead at breakneck speed, feeling powerful and able to do anything. Greedy for profit, we let ourselves get caught up in things, and lured away by haste,” Francis said. “We were not shaken awake by wars or injustice across the world, nor did we listen to the cry of the poor or of our ailing planet. We carried on regardless, thinking we would stay healthy in a world that was sick.”

But the pope also had words of encouragement at this trying time, saying today was not “the time of your judgement.”

The hour has come, he said, to “reawaken and put into practice that solidarity and hope capable of giving strength, support and meaning to these hours when everything seems to be floundering.”

He added that the coronavirus “tempest” has put everyone “in the same boat.”

And in an unusual move, the pope performed the rarely recited “Urbi et Orbi” blessing “from the steps of the basilica to an empty square, addressing those in lockdown across the globe via television, radio and social media,” Agence France Press reported.

“The blessing — which translates as ‘To the City (Rome) and the World’ — is usually given on just three occasions: when a pope is elected, and each year at Christmas and Easter,” AFP said.

“The pontiff traditionally speaks out against armed conflicts around the globe before delivering the Urbi et Orbi blessing.”

The pope also praised “ordinary people – often forgotten people” who are exhibiting great courage in the crisis, citing doctors and nurses as well as supermarket employees, police forces and volunteers.

“And at the end of the service, Francis granted Catholics the chance to have a rare remission for the punishment of sins,” AFP reported.

Italy has been among the hardest hit by the virus. On Saturday, there were more than 86,000 cases there, with 9,134 deaths, according to the Johns Hopkins Center for Systems Science and Engineering.

But that hasn’t kept Pope Francis, 83, from performing his duties as pontiff. Earlier this month, when Rome was already locked down, Francis made a solitary pilgrimage to two of the city’s churches. “At one, he borrowed a crucifix believed to have saved Rome from plague in the 16th century. On Friday, that crucifix was placed in front of Saint Peter’s,” AFP reported.

“During the plague in the Middle Ages, the Church was the only visible presence in public, through the processions of priests who were supposed to produce miracles,” Vatican expert Marco Politi told AFP. “The Pope wants to recapture a part of that scene and of the collective imagination,” he said.