Praying outside Church of the Holy Sepulchre, but unable to enter

A worshipper stands in front of the locked door of Jerusalem's Church of the Holy Sepulchre amid coronavirus restrictions in the walled Old City March 27, 2020 REUTERS/ Ammar Awad

JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Two weeks before Easter, a group of Roman Catholic priests gathered before the locked doors of the ancient Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem on Friday chanting in prayer.

Any other year the clerics would be inside the church, preparing it and themselves for the most important festival in the Christian calendar, which Catholics this year celebrate on April 12.