Vatican cancels public Easter celebrations in 'unprecedented' move
"All the Liturgical Celebrations of Holy Week will take place without the physical presence of the faithful," a statement from the Prefecture of the Pontifical Household said.
The Vatican press office did not respond to requests for further detail.
Easter, which this year falls on April 12, is the most important Christian holiday, celebrating the resurrection of Jesus. There are several ceremonies leading up to it, during a so-called Holy Week.
One of the most solemn is a Good Friday evening procession by Rome's Colosseum, the Way of the Cross, led by the pope and attended by thousands of worshippers.
Another key event is Holy Thursday's foot-washing ceremony, which Francis has performed in the past in prisons, migrant detention centres and hospices for the disabled.
The Vatican's decision "opens up an unprecedented scenario: rites with no people," Massimo Faggioli, a professor of theology and religious studies at Villanova University in the United States, told dpa.
"Francis is facing a situation similar to predecessors who were popes while Rome and Italy were riven by war and general upheaval: just in the last two centuries, Pius IX, Benedict XV, Pius XII," he added.
Due to the coronavirus outbreak, the Vatican has previously cancelled Francis' public engagements and closed to the public St Peter's Square and the Basilica.
In late February, there was some concern about the 83-year-old pope's health, as he caught a cold just as the pneumonia-like Covid-19 was spreading across Italy.
The Vatican never confirmed press reports that he was tested for the coronavirus and got a negative result, but in any case Francis seems to have recovered.
Nevertheless, his Wednesday weekly audience, his Sunday Angelus prayers and his morning Mass in Santa Marta, the pope's Vatican residence, are now broadcast online.
For the weekly audience and the Angelus, this will continue until April 12, the Prefecture of the Pontifical Household said in its statement.
Public gatherings have been cancelled in countries across Europe as the continent battles with a growing number of Covid-19 infections. In Italy, Catholic masses and other religious services are banned.
The head of the World Health Organization said late Friday that Europe is now the epicentre of the pandemic, surpassing China as the world's coronavirus hotspot.
Italy - the worst-affected country in the world outside of China, where the outbreak originated - reported more than 21,000 cases and 1,441 deaths as of late Saturday.
