Pope in Easter blessing issues calls for peace
Resurrection provides hope, he says
VATICAN CITY — On Christianity’s most joyful day, 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 Sunday.
The pope began the day with a post on Twitter. “Our faith is born on Easter morning: Jesus is alive! The experience is at the heart of the Christian message,” he said. He then delivered the papal blessing known as “Urbi et Orbi,” “To the City and to the World,” from the central balcony of St. Peter’s Basilica.
Francis reflected on the power of Christianity’s core belief — that Jesus rose from the dead after his crucifixion.
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.”
“It bears fruits of hope and dignity where there are deprivation and exclusion, hunger and unemployment; where there are migrants and refugees, so often rejected by today’s culture of waste, and victims of the drug trade, human trafficking and contemporary forms of slavery,” the pope said.
Francis called for a “swift end” to the seven years of carnage in Syria, demanding that aid be delivered to the war-torn country’s needy and calling for “fitting conditions for the returned and the displaced.”
The pope also urged reconciliation in Israel, a place “experiencing in these days the wounds of ongoing conflict that do not spare the defenseless.” His remarks followed the Friday deaths of Palestinian protesters who charged toward Gaza’s border with Israel, in the area’s deadliest violence in four years.
Turning to Asia, Francis expressed hope that talks could bring peace to the Korean Peninsula, urging that “those who are directly responsible act with wisdom and discernment to promote the good of the Korean people.”
The pope also urged more steps to bring harmony to divided Ukraine, called for peace in South Sudan and the Democratic Republic of Congo and appealed for the world not to forget victims of conflict, especially children.
“May there be no lack of solidarity with all those forced to leave their native lands and lacking the bare essentials for living,” said Francis, who has often championed the cause of migrants and refugees.
The church’s first pontiff from Latin America also mentioned the problems in Venezuela. He said he hoped the country would “find a just, peaceful and humane way to surmount quickly the political and humanitarian crises that grip it.”
Tens of thousands of faithful underwent heavy security checks to enter St. Peter’s Square to participate in the Easter Sunday Mass celebrated by the pope.
Security precautions included bag checks and metal detector wands for everyone entering the square, while the main avenue leading to the Vatican, as well as smaller adjoining streets, were closed to traffic.
On Saturday night, the pope celebrated an Easter Vigil service at St. Peter’s, where he baptized eight adults into the Roman Catholic faith, including a Nigerian migrant, John Ogah, who has been called a hero in Italy for foiling a robbery.
Ogah had been begging for spare change outside the Carrefour market in the Centocelle neighborhood of Rome in September when a masked thief, armed with a meat cleaver, tried to steal about $500.
Ogah confronted the thief, wrested the cleaver away and, after the man fell from his motorbike when trying to escape, held him by the collar until police officers arrived.
Ogah then disappeared, apparently fearing he would be deported because he had no papers. He had arrived in Italy after reaching Libya and crossing the Mediterranean on a migrant smuggler’s boat in May 2014.
Authorities in Rome tracked him down in an effort to reward his heroism, and, within a month, he was given a residency permit. Ogah had previously been denied a permit after an earlier bid for asylum failed, according to The Associated Press.
According to the news agency ANSA, Ogah now has a job with the Italian Red Cross and a place to call home. In preparing for his baptism, the agency reported, Ogah asked Nunzio Carbone, the Rome police captain who handled his case, to be his godfather.
In an interview soon after he thwarted the robbery attempt, Ogah told the newspaper La Repubblica that his dream was to be a legal resident in Italy and to have a job to support his child in Nigeria.
“If Pope Francis or the president of the republic could do something for me, I would be the happiest man in the world,” he was quoted as saying. “I don’t want to be a hero. I just want to be legal, work and have a dignified life in Italy.”
Elsewhere, hundreds of Christians marked Easter by flocking to Jerusalem’s Church of the Holy Sepulchre, built on the site where they believe Jesus was crucified, buried and resurrected.
Worshippers prayed and sang hymns Sunday in the church in Jerusalem’s Old City as they lined up to admire the edicule, the chamber that tradition says marks Jesus’ tomb.
A restoration of the edicule was completed last year, aimed at reversing the effects of years of exposure to water, humidity and candle smoke. The limestone and marble structure stands at the center of the church — a 12th-century building standing on fourth-century remains.
The Roman Catholic services were happening as eastern Orthodox Christians celebrated Palm Sunday. The denominations, which jealously guard different sections of the church, held separate services one after another.