VATICAN CITY – Pope Francis marked a surreal Palm Sunday in an empty St. Peter’s Basilica, urging those living through the coronavirus epidemic not to be concerned with their lack but to suffer the suffering of others How can we reduce it.

The service, kicking off the Holy Week events for Easter, usually attracts thousands of people to St. Peter’s Square, surrounded by olives and palm trees. The service normally consists of long processions of cardinals, priests and faithful carrying palms.

This time, it was held from a secondary altar behind the one Francis used for the main and was attended by about two dozen people, including only a few collaborators, nuns and a scale-down choir, all practicing social distance. Was doing.

The symbolic procession was only several meters tall and some rooms brought olive trees.

The Mass was broadcast on television and on the Internet to many millions of people. Churches in countries around the world were holding virtual services this week, as gatherings were banned.

Cutting the figure of solitude, Francis listened as three priests read the gospel of Jesus’ entry into Jerusalem and were welcomed as Messiah.

Holy Week marks the period when Christians remember the events surrounding the major tenets of their faith – that Jesus was betrayed, crucified and rose from the dead.

In his sermon, Francis urges his listeners to face betrayal with so much hope, in the face of many false securities, now uprooted, “in the tragedy of the pestilence,” in the sense of abandonment which would weigh on Is our heart “.

The epidemic may help turn fear into service, he said.

The Vatican has been in its own lockdown, mostly in Italy, where the outbreak of the new coronavirus pandemic on February 21 in northern Italy has killed more than 15,500 people.

There are approximately 125,000 cases of the virus in Italy and seven in the Vatican. The pope and his close associates have tested negative.

“The tragedy we are experiencing is summoning us to take things that are serious, and in that case not to be caught in the least; not to be used to serve others But that life is of no use. Love for life is measured by love, “Francis said on Sunday.

“We can reach those who are suffering and need those people. Are we not concerned about what we lack, but what we can do for others,” he said.

All services of the Pope’s Holy Week, which would normally attract thousands of pilgrims and tourists to Rome, will take place in a scale-down version in the empty basilica.

The Good Friday Via Crucis (Way of the Cross) procession, which usually takes place around the Colosseum of Rome, will instead be held in a relatively small atrium of basilica.