Coronavirus: Pope Francis delivers a solitary address to an empty St Peters Square in Vatican City
It was an eerily empty and rainy Saint Peter’s Square.
Pope Francis was seen walking through a rainy, empty St Peter’s Square in Vatican City, where he usually addresses tens of thousands of people. He then delivered a prayer address that the Vatican called “an extraordinary prayer in the time of a pandemic.”
Amidst the Covid-19 pandemic, the Vatican has closed St Peter’s Square and the basilica until April 3 as a preventive measure. As of Friday, March 27, the day of the solitary address, the total number of reported infections in Vatican City was five.
In his address, the “Urbi Et Orbi”, which is usually delivered only at Christmas and Easter, the Pope said Covid-19 “has taken over our lives, filling everything with a deafening silence and a distressing void, that stops everything as it passes by.”
Watch the full address below.
