Pope Francis offers coronavirus prayer from a strikingly empty St. Peter's Square
In yet another surreal sight to emerge from the COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic, Pope Francis on Friday delivered a blessing from a strikingly deserted St. Peter's Square.
It was a rainy Friday in Vatican City as Pope Francis delivered his Urbi et Orbi blessing amid the coronavirus crisis, which has left more than 9,000 people dead in Italy. The prayer the pope offered is usually reserved for Christmas and Easter, The Washington Post notes. It was streamed online, and the Vatican referred to this as "An Extraordinary Prayer in the Time of Pandemic."
"Thick darkness has gathered over our squares, our streets and our cities," Pope Francis said, per Reuters. "...We have realized that we are in the same boat, all of us fragile and disoriented, but at the same time important and needed, all of us called to row together, each of us in need of comforting the other."
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Italy is among the most affected countries amid the coronavirus crisis with more than 80,000 cases, and Vatican City has confirmed four cases.
"Lord, may you bless the world, give health to our bodies and comfort our hearts," the pope said near the end of his homily, per the National Catholic Register. "You ask us not to be afraid. Yet our faith is weak and we are fearful. But you, Lord, will not leave us at the mercy of the storm."
The unusual sight of the pope's blessing in the empty St. Peter's Square was, Reuters' Crispian Balmer said, "another image that will go down in history," while the Post wrote that "the images of the event were among the most memorable in the modern history of the Catholic Church."
