In his final public appearance on Easter Sunday, Pope Francis delivered his Easter blessing “urbi et orbi” (to the city and the world). Source: CNS.
Pope Francis wished the crowd gathered below his balcony in St Peter’s Square a happy Easter and then asked his master of liturgical ceremonies, Archbishop Diego Ravelli, to read his Easter message, which insisted that “Easter is the celebration of life!”
The Pope wrote in his Easter message that the hope Christians have is not a sign of avoiding reality but of trusting in the power of God to defeat sin and death, as the resurrection of Jesus clearly shows.
“All those who put their hope in God place their feeble hands in his strong and mighty hand; they let themselves be raised up and set out on a journey,” the message said.
The Pope’s voice was weak, as it had been since he was released from the hospital on March 23, and he barely raised his arms as he made the sign of the cross, but the tens of thousands of people in St Peter’s Square were appreciative and clapped loudly after saying, “Amen”.
“Together with the risen Jesus,” he wrote in his message, those who trust in God “become pilgrims of hope, witnesses of the victory of love and of the disarmed power of life.”
“God created us for life and wants the human family to rise again,” he wrote. “In his eyes, every life is precious! The life of a child in the mother’s womb, as well as the lives of the elderly and the sick, who in more and more countries are looked upon as people to be discarded.”
Pope Francis condemned the “great thirst for death” seen in violence and wars around the world and in the “contempt” people, including government leaders, direct toward “the vulnerable, the marginalised and migrants!”
As is traditional for the message, the Pope also prayed for peace in war-torn nations, mentioning by name: Israel, Palestine, Ukraine, Yemen, Sudan, South Sudan, Congo and Myanmar.
Pope Francis condemned “the growing climate of antisemitism throughout the world.” But he also called attention to “the people of Gaza, and its Christian community in particular, where the terrible conflict continues to cause death and destruction and to create a dramatic and deplorable humanitarian situation.”
After the Easter blessing, Pope Francis rode around St Peter’s Square in the popemobile, waving to the crowd and blessing babies.
FULL STORY
Pope on Easter: Jesus’ resurrection makes Christians pilgrims of hope (By Cindy Wooden, CNS)
