New York allows in-person services this Easter, but some congregations stay virtual.
Half-empty pews at a Palm Sunday Mass at St. Sebastian Roman Catholic Church in Queens.Credit...Anna Watts for The New York Times
Published April 3, 2021Updated April 4, 2021, 2:35 p.m. ET
The Rev. Henry Torres told his parishioners, who had gathered on Palm Sunday in socially distanced rows of half-empty pews, that God had not abandoned them.
The coronavirus had killed dozens of regulars at the church, St. Sebastian Roman Catholic Church in Queens, N.Y., and the pandemic forced it to close its doors for months last year. But the parishioners were there now, he said, which was a sign of hope.