1.3 billion Catholics were in forced confinement.
Pope Francis offered a prayer for coronavirus victims in an unprecedented livestream Easter Sunday message delivered from a hauntingly empty Vatican to a world under lockdown.
The pope’s message was livestreamed for the first time, a bow to technology in the face of a new illness that has changed the shape of society and altered the way religion is observed. The majority of the world’s 1.3 billion Catholics were in forced confinement as the pope spoke and almost all of the world’s churches were shut on Christianity’ holiest day.The pope pleaded with the world’s leaders to put aside their political differences and call back their armies during a global health emergency of a magnitude not seen in 100 years.
He called for a “reduction, if not the forgiveness, of the debt burdening the balance sheets of the poorest nations” and for European nations to show the same “solidarity” they did in the wake of World War II.“The European Union is presently facing an epochal challenge, on which will depend not only its future but that of the whole world.”
A parish near the Philippines’ capital Manila pasted the empty pews with family photos that the faithful had emailed to the priest.
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