Holy Week

Cuba reportedly banned Christians from celebrating traditional Catholic Holy Week processions across several regions of the country.

Local and international journalist groups demanded the release of Nicaraguan reporter Victor Ticay this weekend after communist authorities arrested him on Thursday for covering a traditional Catholic Holy Week procession.

The Archdiocese for the Military Services slammed Walter Reed for a “cease and desist order” to Catholic priests just before Holy Week.

British prime minister Boris Johnson declined to offer Holy Week greetings for Good Friday, Maundy Thursday, and Palm Sunday on social media — but made time to recognise the Tamil and Sinhalese new year and publish video messages to mark the Jewish Passover and Sikh Vaisakhi.

JERUSALEM — Christians in the Holy Land are marking Good Friday this year amid signs the coronavirus crisis is winding down, with religious sites open to limited numbers of faithful but none of the mass pilgrimages usually seen in the Holy Week leading up to Easter.

JERUSALEM (AP) – A small group of Christian clerics celebrated the Holy Fire ceremony at the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem on Saturday as the coronavirus pandemic prevented worshippers from taking part in the ancient and mysterious ritual.

Just before noon on Friday four friars processed down Jerusalem’s Via Dolorosa to commemorate the “Way of the Cross” walked by Jesus before being crucified on Good Friday.

JERUSALEM — A small group of Franciscan monks and Roman Catholic faithful took to the streets of Jerusalem’s Christian Quarter in the Old City Sunday to distribute olive branches after the traditional Palm Sunday procession was cancelled due to restrictions imposed to contain the spread of the coronavirus.

The Italian bishops’ conference has cancelled the celebration of weekday Masses in areas of the north of the country affected by the coronavirus outbreak, a move that has some Catholics up in arms.

“Just had a wonderful conversation with Pope Francis offering condolences from the People of the United States for the horrible and destructive fire at Notre Dame Cathedral,” Trump wrote on Twitter.

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo concluded a short tour of Latin America Sunday with a visit to Cúcuta, Colombia, a border city Venezuelan dictator Nicolás Maduro blocked off this year to prevent U.S. aid from entering his impoverished country.

JERUSALEM — Thousands of Christian pilgrims took part in Palm Sunday celebrations in Jerusalem at the start of the Holy Week.

Many followers of Jesus Christ in Iraq will get to celebrate Easter at home for the first time since fleeing the region in 2014, when the Islamic State (ISIS/ISIL) began its genocide campaign against the religious minority group.

David Hogg wasted an incredible opportunity on Thursday, when Fox News host Laura Ingraham apologized mocking him on Twitter the day before.

The Cuban dissident group Ladies in White reports that at least 36 of their members were arrested violently this weekend while participating in pro-democracy protests and attempting to attend Catholic Mass on Palm Sunday.

Chinese police arrested Bishop Giuseppe Guo Xijin of Mindong Monday night, just prior to the celebration of Holy Week, the most solemn period in the Christian calendar.

In the lead-up to the commemoration of Holy Week and Easter, Pope Francis has urged Christians to see the crucifix not as an piece of jewelry but rather as a profound symbol of faith in Jesus.

Pope Francis on Sunday decried a deadly attack on a Coptic church in Egypt during Palm Sunday celebrations, just weeks before his planned visit to Cairo.

In graphic reenactments of the crucifixion of Jesus on Good Friday, at least 17 men have been nailed to wooden crosses in the Philippines in an extreme act of devotion, one of whom said he offered his penance for peace