Italy: for the second time, Italy celebrates confined Easter

Pope Francis during the celebration of Easter, Saturday April 3, 2021. via REUTERS - VATICAN MEDIA

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3 min

As in 2020, in Rome, the Holy Week liturgies take place against a backdrop of sanitary restrictions.

To avoid large family gatherings during the Easter festivities, Italy, which has passed the barrier of 100,000 deaths linked to Covid-19, has also been fully reconfined since Saturday and until April 6.

Pope Francis therefore presided over the Paschal Vigil inside Saint Peter's Basilica in the presence of a very limited number of faithful.

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From our correspondent in Rome

,

Anne Le Nir

Before the pandemic, Saint Peter's Basilica welcomed

around 10,000 people from all over the world

for 

the Easter Vigil

.

Saturday evening April 3, surrounded by concelebrants and a hundred faithful, all distanced and masked, the Pope delivered his homily in front of the pulpit altar, decorated with pastel-colored roses.

Hope for rebirth

He recalled the presence, always dramatic,

of the coronavirus

.

But invited everyone to conceive of the future as the hope of rebirth:

“In these dark months of pandemic we hear the Risen Lord who invites us to relaunch ourselves.

(…) Sister, brother, your expectations will not be disappointed, your tears will be dried, your fears will be overcome by hope.

Because the Lord always precedes you and with him life begins anew

 ”.

This Sunday,

Pope Francis will

celebrate, also inside Saint Peter's Basilica, the Mass of the Resurrection, then will pronounce his blessing

urbi et orbi

, “to the city and to the world”.

In the Italian streets, it is dead calm.

" 

We have no restaurants, no tourists, we have no one,

 " complains a vendor in front of his stack of artichokes at the Campo dei Fiori market in central Rome.

In Piazza Navona, usually crowded at this time of year, only a few people walk their dogs or cycle.

The completely deserted surroundings of the Colosseum, in Rome, March 30, 2021. AFP - ELIO CASTORIA

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  • Italy

  • Religion

  • Coronavirus

  • Pope Francis

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