Francis counseled: “Don’t waste these difficult days,” instead “rediscover” the importance of “small, concrete gestures expressing closeness and concreteness toward the people closest to us, a caress for our grandparents, a kiss for our children, for the people we love.”

This week on “Inside the Vatican,” the hosts discuss the pope’s pilgrimage through the empty streets of Rome.

Pope Francis traveled the nearly deserted streets of Rome this afternoon to pray at the Basilica of Saint Mary Major and the church of St. Marcello, home to a venerated crucifix from the 16th-century plague.

In a video address, Pope Francis thanked caregivers and assured his audience that ‘spiritual communion‘ remains strong even during the isolation of the coronavirus epidemic. Gerard O’Connell reports from the Vatican.

While public gatherings, including Masses, have been banned in Italy through April 3, Holy Week begins with the Palm Sunday liturgy April 5, so the notification from the Prefecture of the Papal Household was read as a sign that the ban would be extended, at least at the Vatican.

The coronavirus has become Italy's most major crisis since World War II.