Thousands attend Easter mass
Pope Francis celebrated Easter mass under tight security and a sunny sky yesterday in front of tens of thousands of pilgrims gathered in a flower- bedecked St Peter’s Square. Under a long- standing tradition, the Netherlands donated some 50,000 tulips, daffodils, roses and orchids for the occasion.
Access to the famous square for the mass on the holiest day in the Christian calendar, marking Jesus’s resurrection, was tightly controlled.
Tourists and clergy alike formed long queues to have their belongings checked and pass through metal detectors.
“Rome is the centre of the Catholic faith,” anti- terror prosecutor Federico Cafiero de Raho said Saturday.
“For those who believe in the radical form of holy war, Rome represents so many things put together — there’s the pope, the Vatican ...”
Italian authorities are concerned that some of the estimated 120 radicalised Italians who left for Syria or Iraq to fight with terrorist groups could be returning to the country posing as migrants.
Last week saw a wave of anti- terror arrests, with Interior Minister Marco Minniti warning of a high risk of an attack.
At noon ( 1000 GMT), the pope delivered his traditional “Urbi et Orbi” ( To the City and the World) address from the balcony of St Peter’s Basilica.
Urges healing in Israel, Syria
Pope Francis called for peace in a world marked by war and conflict, “beginning with the beloved and long- suffering land of Syria” and extending to Israel, where 15 Palestinians were killed on the Israeli- Gaza border two days before Easter.
The head of the world’s 1.2 billion Catholics, Francis reflected on the power of Christianity’s core belief — that Jesus rose from the dead following crucifixion — in his formal message.
The pontiff said the message of the resurrection offers hope in a world “marked by so many acts of injustice and violence,” including parts of Africa affected by “hunger, endemic conflicts and terrorism.”