All Easter Masses and Holy Week ceremonies will be held without the faithful at the Archdiocese of Vrhbosna and with live coverage from the public broadcaster BHRT, Bosnian Archbishop Vinko Puljic and Coadjutor Tomo Vuksic decided on Thursday and said that the faithful should celebrate this holiday with their families.

“In these difficult times which we live in, it is not possible for us as a church and community to gather and celebrate Easter Sunday and Easter due to the danger of transmitting the coronavirus. Therefore, will now be celebrated that which is celebrated in the church, with our families. The family is ‘a house Church’ or a ‘small Church’ and now the family becomes the bearer of the Church's communion and spirit, in its own way,” the Bosnian Archbishop of and Coadjutor stated in their instruction to the faithful.

In doing so, they encouraged all families to ‘nourish the spirit of prayer, the spirit of the congregation, the spirit of popular piety and the spirit of reading of the Scripture’ in their homes.

The Holy Week rites and Easter celebrations will be held without the faithful and broadcasted live on state-run BHRT.

All other rites will also be without the faithful.

While observing the measures during Easter and Holy Week, Archbishop Puljic and Coadjutor Vuksic also decided to cancel the traditional Easter reception.