View Photo Gallery — Christians celebrate Easter across the globe: Faithful around the world celebrate Easter Sunday with church services and community egg hunts.
Pope Francis has celebrated his first Easter Mass today as 250,000 people packed St. Peter’s Square. On Saturday night, he celebrated a trimmed back Easter Vigil service at St. Peter’s Basilica.
Catholics, Protestants in the Mideast, Holy Land celebrate Easter
JERUSALEM — Catholics and Protestants flocked to churches to celebrate Easter on Sunday in the Holy Land and across the broader Middle East, praying, singing and rejoicing as a new pope pleaded for peace in the region.
Iraqi Catholics flock to churches amid heavy security to celebrate Easter
BAGHDAD — Iraq’s Catholic Christians flocked to churches to celebrate Easter Sunday, praying, singing and rejoicing in the resurrection of Christ behind high blast walls and tight security cordons.
Pope celebrates trimmed back vigil
One of the dramatic moments of the Easter Vigil service was shortened along with Old Testament readings.
Francis has repeatedly put concern for the poor and suffering at the center of his messages, and he pursued his promotion of the causes of peace and social justice in the Easter speech he delivered from the central balcony of St. Peter’s Basilica, the same vantage point above the square where he was introduced to the world as the first Latin American pope on March 13.
The Roman Catholic leader aimed his Easter greetings at “every house and every family, especially where the suffering is greatest, in hospitals, in prisons.” Francis prayed that Jesus would inspire people to “change hatred into love, vengeance into forgiveness, war into peace.”
As popes before him have, he urged Israelis and Palestinians to resume peace talks and end a conflict that “has lasted all too long.” And, in reflecting on the two-year-old Syrian crisis, Francis asked, “How much suffering must there still be before a political solution” can be found?
The pope also expressed desire for a “spirit of reconciliation” on the Korean peninsula, where North Korea says it has entered “a state of war” with South Korea. He also decried warfare and terrorism in Africa, as well as what he called the 21st century’s most extensive form of slavery: human trafficking.
The first pontiff to come from the Jesuits, an order with special concern for the poor, and the first pope to name himself after St. Francis, a medieval figure who renounced wealth to preach to the down-and-out, Francis lamented that the world is “still divided by greed looking for easy gain.”
Earlier, wearing cream-colored vestments, Francis celebrated Mass on the esplanade in front of the basilica at an altar set up under a white canopy. He frequently bowed his head as if in silent reflection.
Vatican officials said by mid-ceremony, 250,000 people had come to the square, and thousands of others, including last-minute Romans, flocked to the square just in time to catch his blessing at the end.
The square was a panoply of floral color. Chilly winter has postponed the blossoming of many flowers. Yellow forsythia and white lilies shone, along with bursts of lavender and pink, from potted azalea, rhododendron, wisteria and other plants.
Francis thanked florists from the Netherlands for donating the flowers. He also advised people to let love transform their lives, or as he put it, “let those desert places in our hearts bloom.”
The Vatican had prepared a list of brief Easter greetings in 65 languages, but Francis didn’t read them. The Vatican didn’t say why not, but has said that the new pope, at least for now, feels at ease using Italian, the everyday language of the Holy See. Francis also has stressed his role as a pastor to his flock, and, as Bishop of Rome, Italian would be his language.
The pontiff improvised his parting words to the crowd. He repeated his Easter greeting to those “who have come from all over the world to this square at the heart of Christianity” as well as to those “linked by modern technology,” a reference to TV and radio coverage as well as social media.
Francis added that he was especially remembering “the weakest and the neediest” and praying that all of humanity be guided along “the paths of justice, love and peace.”
In another departure from Easter tradition, Francis won’t be heading for some post-holiday relaxation at the Vatican’s summer palace in Castel Gandolfo, in the hills southeast of Rome. That retreat is already occupied by his predecessor, Benedict XVI, who went there in the last hours of his papacy on Feb. 28. Benedict became the first pope in 600 years to resign from the position, and eventually is to move back to the Vatican, after a convent there is readied for him.
Francis so far has declined to move into Benedict’s former apartment in the Apostolic Palace, into the rooms whose studio overlooks St. Peter’s Square. He is still in the Vatican hotel where earlier this month he was staying along with other cardinals participating in the secret conclave to choose Benedict’s successor.
While Francis has just begun to make his mark on the church, it is plain he has little desire to embrace much of the pomp customarily associated with the office.
Copyright 2013 The Associated Press.
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