What a difference a year makes. On Easter Sunday morning 12 months ago, I took my seat several feet from the altar in St Peter’s Square, waiting for Pope Francis to celebrate Mass. As the Pope and the Vatican prelates processed in, seminarians from the English College sang alongside the Sistine Chapel choir.

The piazza was decked out with a sea of thousands of flowers arranged by Dutch florists and the balcony where Francis gave the Urbi et Orbi blessing was decorated with bright orange strelitzia (bird of paradise) flowers, symbolising the descent of the Holy Spirit on to the Apostles. The sky was overcast but the sun was trying to break through as the Pope led the celebration of the high point of the Church’s year with tens of thousands gathered in the square.

Holy Week and Easter 2020 couldn’t be more different. The memories of that Roman Easter Sunday seem more distant than just a year ago. Today, St Peter’s Square is empty apart from a handful of officers from the carabinieri and polizia patrolling the area to ensure the Covid-19 lockdown is enforced.

The Pope will celebrate Easter Sunday with a handful of clergy and religious inside St Peter’s basilica in a ceremony that will be live-streamed to the world. He is then expected to impart his Urbi et Orbi blessing to a deserted square.