Coronavirus: Pope prays for the sick at Good Friday service

Vatican City - Service attended by only about two dozen people.

Pope Francis prostrated himself on the floor of an empty St Peter's Basilica on Friday to pray at a Passion of the Lord service commemorating Jesus' last hours of life and his crucifixion, an event scaled down by coronavirus restrictions.

The Good Friday service is one of the rare times when the pope does not deliver a homily, leaving it to Fr Raniero Cantalamessa, the preacher of the papal household.

Cantalamessa said the pandemic, which has killed nearly 19,000 people in Italy, should be a spur for people to appreciate what really matters in life. "Let us not allow so much pain, so many deaths, and so much heroic engagement on the part of health workers to have been in vain. Returning to the way things were is the 'recession' we should fear the most," he said.

The service is usually attended by cardinals, bishops and some 10,000 faithful. But coronavirus conditions meant it was attended by only about two dozen people.