Pope Francis has cancelled his regular appearances in public to stop crowds gathering to see him and will stream them on the internet from inside the Vatican because of the coronavirus outbreak in Italy, Global News reports.
The Vatican said that on Sunday the pontiff will not address crowds from a window overlooking St. Peter’s Square, and will also not hold his general audience from there this Wednesday. Both attract tens of thousands of people.
It will be one of the few times in the past 66 years that a pope will not appear at the window, a ritual deeply ingrained in Roman tradition, with some families attending every week.
Both the address and general audience will be held without public participation inside the official papal library in the Vatican’s Apostolic Palace and will be view-able on the internet or television, the Vatican said in a statement on Saturday.
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