Christians around the world celebrated another atypical Holy Week due to the pandemic.
For the second time the faithful sang the songs of the Easter Sunday mass covered with masks and seated further apart than usual.
REUTERS / REUTERS
This year, like last year, crowds are banned in Italy and the Vatican.
Pope Francis delivered his noon address on world affairs from inside the basilica, and took the occasion to call again for
vaccines to reach the poorest countries.
Health workers sing and pray this Sunday at a hospital in Belem, Brazil, where coronavirus infections are out of control.AFP via Getty Images
"I urge the entire international community to make a common commitment to overcome the delays in its distribution and to promote its distribution, especially in the poorest countries," the pontiff cried before the slightly more than 200 faithful present.
The pope celebrated Mass on Easter Sunday inside the basilica and not from the balcony of the facade of St. Peter as tradition marks because all of Italy is confined these days, as well as other countries in Europe.
[Follow our coverage on the coronavirus pandemic]
The Reverend Jonathan Frost, the Dean of York (left) and the Archbishop of York, the Reverend Stephen Cottrell, both wearing face masks, bump elbows after Mass on Easter Day at York Minster in York, north of England on April 4, 2021. OLI SCARFF / AFP via Getty Images
"Unfortunately, the pandemic has dramatically increased the number of poor and the despair of thousands of people," he said,
and asked for hope
"for so many young people who have been forced to go long periods without attending school or university, and without to be able to share time with friends. "
Before the pandemic, thousands of people attended the Mass celebrated by Pope Francis, and a crowd gathered outside in St. Peter's Square, with more than 100,000 people sometimes gathering to receive the Easter blessing.
Citizens participate in the representation of the Passion of Christ this Good Friday, in the mayor's office of Iztapalapa, in Mexico City, Mexico.
EFE / José Méndez
In Mexico, faith in overcoming the pandemic and resignation due to sanitary restrictions marked this Good Friday the Stations of the Cross in Iztapalapa, the largest in Mexico and one of the largest in the world, which for the second year was held without an audience.
[The president of Argentina, Alberto Fernández, announces that he tested positive for COVID-19. I was already vaccinated]
Priests wearing masks march after Easter Sunday Mass in Jerusalem's Old City on Sunday April 4 AP / Oded Balilty
In the Holy Land,
travel restrictions and quarantine regulations prevented foreign pilgrims from going to religious sites in Jerusalem
, Israel, during Holy Week, which culminates with the Passover celebrations.
That is where Catholics believe that Jesus was crucified, buried, and resurrected.
This country's successful vaccination campaign has allowed many places to reopen, including religious ones.
Faithful participate in the centennial procession of the Christs, on Holy Thursday in the Salvadoran town of Izalco, in El Salvador.
EFE / Rodrigo Sura
The centennial procession of the Christs returned to the streets of the municipality this Thursday with the company of hundreds of parishioners, mainly indigenous, after it was suspended in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
The members of various brotherhoods carried 12 images of Christ crucified through the streets of Izalco and joined the Procession of Silence, with which they will return to the temple where it began on Friday morning.
Priests wearing a mask are seen through a cell phone while giving an Easter mass during Holy Week at the Santo Antonio church in Mateus Leme, Minas Gerais state, Brazil, on April 4, 2021. The celebration was broadcast by the social networks and there was no presence of the faithful DOUGLAS MAGNO / AFP via Getty Images
The opening of churches and temples this Easter Sunday, authorized the day before by a Supreme Court judge, became an object of discussion in Brazil, at a time when
the country is experiencing the worst phase of the pandemic and already exceeds 330,000 deaths by COVID-19
.
[Despite the vaccination record in the country, COVID-19 cases continue to increase: why is not the time to lower our guard]
Cults and masses were celebrated this Sunday throughout the country after the endorsement of Kassio Nunes Marques, one of the eleven magistrates of the highest court and who considered that the ban hurts the right to religious freedom, despite the strong advance of the virus.
Parishioners celebrate an Easter Sunday Mass at dawn, hosted by the Manasquan Community Church of Hope, on a beach in Manasquan, NJ, on Sunday, April 4, 2021.AP / John Minchillo
Religious celebrations had been banned by a part of the governors and mayors of Brazil, within the framework of a series of mobility restrictions imposed to contain the spread of a disease that remains out of control.
With information from AP and EFE.
