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March 25, 2020 (LifeSiteNews) — Italian priests from Naples found a creative way to celebrate a public Mass this past Sunday during the coronavirus lockdown, doing so from the roof of their parish with many people joining in prayer from nearby balconies.
With Italian churches closed due to a nationwide coronavirus lockdown, Father Francesco Gravino and Father Lorenzo Fedele, of Our Lady of Health Church, said in a local news report that the idea came to them by chance.
Late last week, they were testing a speaker set-up on the roof of their church to be able to recite the rosary with their faithful from their balconies. According to Fr. Fedele, he along with Fr. Gravino decided to recite the Angelus after the sound check.
“We went up to the roof to try the speaker for the Rosary as Pope Francis had hoped for and there were many people on the balconies. It was noon and we decided to recite the Angelus, and everyone participated,” said Father Lorenzo Fedele.
Later in the evening, the priests recited the rosary with many faithful joining in prayer from their balconies.
Fr. Gravino then decided to use their set-up to go one step farther to say the Mass on Sunday. He did so with the permission of Naples cardinal Crescenzio Sepe, according to Fr. Lorenzo.
Italy has been hard hit by the coronavirus. As of today, there have been over 7,500 deaths. Its citizens have been in a government-imposed lockdown since March 9.
As Italians, like many around the world, cope with churches being closed, other priests in Italy have also used creative ways to spread the love of Christ.
Recently, Father Tomaso Jozef Jochemczyk, a Polish priest serving a few small Italian towns, carried the monstrance in a Eucharistic procession, blessing Italy and his towns in the process, asking God for forgiveness and protection.