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Rome (AP) - Once again, Pope Francis has to celebrate Easter, which is important for Christians, with a few believers and many corona restrictions.

The 84-year-old wants to celebrate another highlight of the program on Saturday: Easter Vigil.

Because of the rules in force in Italy, the head of the Catholic Church begins the service in St. Peter's Basilica earlier (7.30 p.m.), because from 10 p.m. there is a curfew - as it has been for months.

The whole of Italy is also classified as a red zone with the strictest corona rules over the Easter days from April 3rd to 5th.

For the most part, the same restrictions apply in the Vatican State as in the Italian capital Rome.

For the Easter celebrations, this means that there can be far fewer believers than before the pandemic.

Therefore, the flocks of pilgrims in St. Peter's Square stay away.

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Christians commemorate the resurrection of Jesus on Easter vigil.

The Easter candle - the light of Christ - is carried into the mostly dark St. Peter's Basilica.

The service is one of the most important celebrations at Easter.

It is also the evening on which the church bells ring again after traditionally remaining silent since Maundy Thursday.

For believing Christians, Easter is the most important festival in the church year.

This year, the church celebrations in front of a small audience are likely to be depressing for Francis, who likes to seek closeness to people.

A year ago he worked seriously at the Easter services affected by Corona.

According to Vatican experts, at Christmas he was unhappy about how the feast of the birth of Christ was celebrated under pandemic conditions.

Surprisingly, he visited the corona vaccination center in the Vatican on Good Friday.

According to its own information, the Holy See wants to immunize around 1200 people in need with the vaccine from Pfizer / Biontech against the corona virus.

As of Friday, around 800 of them had already received their first vaccination.

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The Good Friday liturgy followed in the evening, followed by the Way of the Cross.

Francis prayed again this year in the square in front of St. Peter's Basilica and not at the Colosseum as in times before the pandemic.

Many children had painted pictures and written texts for the meditations, to which the pontiff answered with a prayer.

© dpa-infocom, dpa: 210403-99-70575 / 2

Pope Francis Easter program via Vatican News