Pope appeals for peace on Easter Sunday
Vatican City, Apr 9 (EFE).- Pope Francis made an urgent appeal for peace during his traditional Easter Sunday mass.
“Let us make haste to surmount our conflicts and divisions, and to open our hearts to those in greatest need. Let us hasten to pursue paths of peace and fraternity,” the pontiff told some 100,000 believers gathered in St. Peter’s Square.
Francis, 86, delivered his message from the papal balcony at St. Peter’s Basilica, days after he was hospitalized for bronchitis.
A week after he used his Palm Sunday message to call for an Easter truce in Ukraine, the pope prayed for an end to the war.
“Help the beloved Ukrainian people on their journey towards peace, and shed the light of Easter upon the people of Russia. Comfort the wounded and all who have lost loved ones due to the war,” he said.
Francis also mentioned the flare-up of violence in the Middle East, urging a “resumption of dialogue between Israelis and Palestinians, so that peace may prevail.”
He also prayed for the victims of the February earthquakes in Turkey and Syria, where more than 55,000 people died, and for peace in war-torn and crisis-ridden regions such as Libya, Syria, Tunisia, Haiti, Nigeria, South Sudan and Nicaragua.
“Comfort refugees, deportees, political prisoners and migrants, especially the most vulnerable and may we all help the victims of hunger, drug abuse, human trafficking and all other forms of slavery,” he said.EFE
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