RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – The Holy Week celebrations, the most important event for Christians, have been adapted due to the Covid-19 pandemic. Celebrations of the so-called “Good Friday” were held indoors throughout the country, with the faithful connected to cell phones, tablets, television and radio to remotely follow part of the celebrations.
In the Catholic Church, the foot-washing Mass, traditionally held on Thursday, April 9th, to represent the moment when Jesus Christ washed the feet of his disciples, was suspended in much of the country. In São Paulo, Archbishop and Cardinal Odilo Pedro Scherer sent a letter to the priests with guidelines on the Holy Week celebrations, stressing the Vatican’s recommendations, the highest Catholic authority, for this period of pandemic.
The website of the São Paulo Archdiocese has also made available a special page containing all the pastoral and liturgical guidelines for this period. Bishop Odilo reinforced the call to strengthen the preparation for Easter through prayer and charity and although going to church is not possible, may Holy Week be lived with profound faith in family.
Once again urging the faithful to follow the authorities’ guidelines to refrain from leaving home to contain the spread of Covid-19, the Cardinal addressed those who, by not being considered a risk group for developing a severe form of the illness, believe that remaining in isolation is not necessary.
“Perhaps someone will say, ‘I’m strong, it won’t be a problem for me, I’m young and healthy.’ Thank God, but think of others. You may be infected, you may not feel anything, but you can infect others. Therefore, everyone must take care of themselves to take care of the life and health of others. It is a time of fraternity, solidarity and mutual care,” he said during the Mass on Tuesday, April 7th, broadcast from the chapel in his home.
The Vatican published a statement advising churches around the world that they could cancel processions and other face-to-face events during Holy Week.
Online celebrations
With closed churches, the Easter Triduum celebrations in São Paulo will be broadcast on ‘9 de Julho’ radio station and Facebook. On Easter Sunday, April 12th, there will be the Consecration of Latin America and the Caribbean to Our Lady of Guadalupe, broadcast directly from Mexico, by initiative of the Latin American Episcopal Council (CELAM).
In Aparecida, a city in the interior of São Paulo where the largest Catholic Shrine in Latin America is located, the local organization broadcast Masses and celebrations throughout the week on the Internet. The Shrine of Aparecida has its own TV channel, the TV Aparecida, which organized special programming for Holy Week. Masses in the Basilica have been suspended for almost a month since the weekend of March 14th – just before the general quarantine in the state of São Paulo on March 23rd.
Even elsewhere in Brazil, Masses and religious gatherings are virtually banned. Half the country’s population is quarantined, according to data from Startup In Loco, which uses cell phone monitoring. The inability of the faithful to attend their local churches has also caused TV Aparecida’s audience to increase – the station has ranked third in the Greater São Paulo during the celebration of Masses in recent weeks.
The Vatican in Italy also broadcast the week’s celebrations on the Internet. Last Sunday, during the so-called Palm Sunday celebrations, Pope Francis celebrated Mass for only 12 people physically present – all were helpers in the celebration.
In Brazil, Father Marcelo Rossi also celebrated an empty Mass on Palm Sunday in São Paulo, and placed photos of health professionals on the seats.
The Pope’s online broadcasts began in early March, amid an increase in the number of Covid-19 cases in Europe which forced the Vatican to close face-to-face celebrations.
Italy, where the Vatican is located, is one of the countries most affected by the coronavirus, with over 143,000 cases. It is also the country with the most fatalities, with more than 18,000 deaths. This Good Friday, the Vatican broadcast on YouTube and Facebook in the afternoon.
Pope Francis will also celebrate Easter Sunday Mass at 6 AM (Brasília time). Last year, over 20,000 Catholics attended the Vatican on Good Friday. It will be the first time the event has not taken place since 1964.
Easter at home
All over the world, clergy authorities also enforce social distancing. In Panama, on Palm Sunday, an archbishop blessed the population from a helicopter.
In Spain, which, like Italy, is one of the countries hardest affected by the virus, the population has renounced the famous confraternities’ processions, a popular tradition that goes back to the 16th century in the country.
In England, the Anglican Church began broadcasting Easter podcasts to its faithful, including a reading of the gospel by Prince Charles – also confirmed with coronavirus.
Even in Greece, whose Orthodox Church rejected the potential spread of the virus through communion, the government banned Masses attended by the faithful. At Easter, which the Orthodox celebrate a week later, the churches in Greece will remain closed.
Israel, which records approximately 60 deaths from the coronavirus, has also been celebrating Passover since Wednesday, which celebrates the exodus from Egypt. In the country, the pandemic is virtually concentrated in ultra-orthodox Jewish neighborhoods, where isolation measures have been less respected.
Ultra-Orthodox Jews are a religious minority that accounts for ten percent of the country’s population, but one third of the more than 10,000 cases of coronavirus in Israel. Israel has closed all places of worship, as well as stores and recreational areas.
The Holy Sepulcher, which is in the so-called Old City of Jerusalem (administered by Israel), is also closed this Passover. The narrow, intertwined alleys of the Old City are under Israeli police surveillance.
Considered the “Christian heart of Jerusalem,” the Holy Sepulcher had already been closed in 2018 to protest against local taxes or for repairs. But it is the first time it will be closed for Passover.
Last year, more than 25,000 people gathered in Jerusalem to celebrate Palm Sunday, according to Ibrahim Chomali, spokesman for the Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem. Last Sunday, with the quarantine measures already in place, the Mass on site was celebrated with only 15 clergy members.
“But even in these difficult circumstances, there can be something positive,” the cleric said. The clergyman claims that behind his television or computer screens, 60,000 people watched the live broadcast of Mass last week.
Thousands more faithful are expected as spectators for this weekend’s celebrations.
Source: Exame