VATICAN CITY\u00a0\u2014\u00a0Pope Leo XIV celebrated his first Easter Mass as pontiff with a call Sunday to lay down arms and seek peace to global conflicts through dialogue, but he departed from a tradition of listing the world\u2019s woes by name in the Urbi et Orbi blessing from the loggia of St. Peter\u2019s Basilica.<\/p>\n
Leo, the first U.S.-born pope, emphasized Easter\u2019s message of hope as a celebration of Jesus\u2019 resurrection after being crucified. <\/p>\n
\u201cLet us allow our hearts to be transformed by his immense love for us! Let those who have weapons lay them down! Let those who have the power to unleash wars choose peace! Not a peace imposed by force, but through dialogue! Not with the desire to dominate others, but to encounter them!\u201d the pope implored.<\/p>\n
With the U.S.-Israeli war on Iran in its second month and Russia\u2019s ongoing invasion of Ukraine, Leo acknowledged a sense of indifference \u201cto the deaths of thousands of people … to the repercussions of hatred and division that conflicts sow \u2026 to the economic and social consequences they produce.\u201d <\/p>\n
Without mentioning the wars by name, Leo quoted his predecessor, Pope Francis, who during his last public appearance from the same loggia last Easter reminded the faithful of the \u201cgreat thirst for death, for killing, we witness each day.\u201d<\/p>\n
Francis, weakened by a long illness, died the next day, on Easter Monday.<\/p>\n
The Urbi et Orbi blessing, Latin for \u201cto the city and the world,\u201d has traditionally included a litany of the world\u2019s woes. Leo followed that formula during his Christmas blessing. There was no immediate explanation for the shift.<\/p>\n
Earlier, Leo addressed some 50,000 faithful from an open-air altar in St. Peter\u2019s Square flanked with white roses, while the steps leading down to the piazza where the faithful gathered were filled with spring perennials, symbolically resonating with the pope\u2019s words. <\/p>\n
He implored the faithful in his homily to keep their hope in the face of death, which lurks \u201cin the abuses that crush the weakest among us, because of the idolatry of profit that plunders the Earth\u2019s resources, because of the violence of war that kills and destroys.\u201d<\/p>\n
Speaking from the loggia, the pope announced a prayer vigil for peace Saturday in the basilica. <\/p>\n
Small shifts in traditions<\/p>\n
Leo greeted the global faithful in 10 languages, including Arabic, Chinese and Latin, reviving a practice that Francis had let lapse.<\/p>\n
Before retreating into the basilica, Leo stepped forward out of the loggia\u2019s shadow and waved to the cheering crowd below. He later greeted people in the piazza from the popemobile that took him all the way down Via della Conciliazione toward the Tiber River and back. <\/p>\n
During the marathon of Catholic ritual that is Holy Week, Leo also reclaimed the tradition of washing priests\u2019 feet on Holy Thursday, a gesture of encouragement toward clergy, after Francis had chosen a more inclusive path, traveling to prisons and homes for the disabled to wash the feet of women, non-Christians and prisoners.<\/p>\n
The 70-year-old pontiff also became the first pope in decades to carry the light wooden cross for the entire 14 stations during the Way of the Cross on Good Friday.<\/p>\n
A subdued Easter in Holy Land<\/p>\n
Traditional ceremonies at the Church of the Holy Sepulcher, revered by Christians as the traditional site of Jesus\u2019 crucifixion and resurrection, were scaled back under an agreement with Israeli police. Authorities have put limits on the sizes of public gatherings because of ongoing missile attacks.<\/p>\n
The restrictions also dampened the recent Muslim holy month of Ramadan and Eid al-Fitr holiday, as well as the current weeklong Jewish festival of Passover. On Sunday, the Jewish priestly blessing at the Western Wall \u2014 normally attended by tens of thousands \u2014 was limited to 50 people.<\/p>\n
The restrictions have strained relations between Israeli authorities and Christian leaders. Police last weekend prevented two of the church\u2019s top religious leaders, including Latin Patriarch Pierbattista Pizzaballa, from celebrating Palm Sunday at the Church of the Holy Sepulcher, breaking from a centuries-long tradition.<\/p>\n
Easter in Gaza<\/p>\n
At the Holy Family church in Gaza City, Catholics young and old gathered for a traditional Easter Mass. Singing, they formed a queue in the aisle, waiting for their chance to kiss a sketch of Jesus held by a member of the clergy who wiped the glass frame between turns.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere is great joy, especially after the ceasefire and after nearly three years of suffering and being unable to celebrate all the holy holidays,\u201d said George Anton from Gaza City. \u201cPeople are somewhat relieved and more stable.\u201d<\/p>\n
Armenian Christians<\/p>\n
Armenian Christians observed Easter at a church in Iran\u2019s capital on Sunday, striving to maintain a sense of normality five weeks into the war. <\/p>\n
Families embraced and children exchanged painted eggs at the Saint Sarkis Cathedral in central Tehran. The capital has been targeted by daily airstrikes since the United States and Israel launched the war on Feb. 28.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhether we like it or not, we have young children who do not understand what\u2019s going on,\u201d said Juanita Arakel, 40, an English-language teacher. \u201cThey just need to feel normal.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Islamic Republic, with a population of more than 90 million, is home to about 300,000 Christians, mostly Armenians, and three seats in parliament are reserved for Christians.<\/p>\n
\u201cOur calls and prayers are that we will be able to end this war,\u201d said Sepuh Sargsyan, the archbishop of the Armenian Diocese of Tehran. \u201cOur calls and prayers are that we will be able to end this war.\u201d<\/p>\n
Barry and Santalucia write for the Associated Press and reported from Milan, Italy, and Vatican City, respectively. AP writers Josef Federman in Jerusalem, Wafaa Shurafa in Deir al-Balah, Gaza Strip,and Bassem Mroue in Tehran contributed to this report. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"VATICAN CITY\u00a0\u2014\u00a0Pope Leo XIV celebrated his first Easter Mass as pontiff with a call Sunday to lay down…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":253431,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[51273,112454,42746,7323,1409,339,85617,108508,34115,48,52,51,34379,47,50,49,7454,592,32734,776,2664],"class_list":{"0":"post-253430","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-los-angeles","8":"tag-basilica","9":"tag-central-tehran","10":"tag-christians","11":"tag-church","12":"tag-city","13":"tag-death","14":"tag-easter","15":"tag-francis","16":"tag-jesus","17":"tag-la","18":"tag-la-headlines","19":"tag-la-news","20":"tag-leo","21":"tag-los-angeles","22":"tag-los-angeles-headlines","23":"tag-los-angeles-news","24":"tag-peace","25":"tag-people","26":"tag-pope","27":"tag-sunday","28":"tag-war"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/253430","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=253430"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/253430\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/253431"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=253430"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=253430"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=253430"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}