Catholic Christians Celebrate Easter – Sing Hymns Through Masks

Christianity's most joyous feast day was celebrated worldwide with faithful sitting far apart in pews and singing choruses of "Hallelujah" through face coverings on a second Easter Sunday conditioned by pandemic precautions.

From Protestant churches in South Korea to St. Peter's Basilica at the Vatican, worshippers followed national or local regulations aimed at preventing the transmission of the coronavirus.

At a hospital in the Lombardy region of Italy, where the pandemic first erupted in the West in February 2020, a hospital gave a traditional dove-shaped Easter cake symbolizing peace to each person who lined up to receive a COVID-19 vaccine. Many of the ones who came were in their 80s and accompanied by adult children.

In Jerusalem, air travel restrictions and quarantine regulations prevented foreign pilgrims from flocking to religious sites during Holy Week, which culminates in Easter celebrations.

Inside St. Peter's Basilica, Pope Francis sprinkled incense near an icon of Jesus and said, "May the joy of Easter extend to the whole world."

The 200 or so faithful who were allowed to attend looked lost in the cavernous cathedral. Normally, thousands would attend the popular service and a crowd would gather outside in St. Peter's Square, with more than 100,000 sometimes assembling to receive the pope's special Easter blessing after Mass.

But this year, like last year, crowds are banned from gathering in Italy, and at the Vatican. So Francis scheduled his noon Easter address on world affairs to be delivered from inside the basilica.

Intent on tamping down weeks of surging infections, the Italian government ordered people to stay home during the three-day weekend except for essential errands like food shopping or...