VATICAN CITY — Decrying modern “wounds that disfigure humanity,” Pope Benedict XVI used a rain-soaked Easter Sunday to make a plea for the “moderation and forgiveness” that can bring peace to troubled parts of the world, especially the Middle East and Tibet.
And he rejoiced over conversions to Christianity, just 12 hours after baptizing as a Roman Catholic one of Italy’s most prominent Muslims, journalist and commentator Magdi Allam.
Tens of thousands of gathered in St. Peter’s Square to hear the pope’s Easter Mass as Christians around the world celebrated their holiest day, when they believe Jesus was resurrected after he was crucified.
Injustice, hatred and violence “are the scourges of humanity, open and festering in every corner of the planet,” the pope said in his traditional “Urbi et Orbi” (to the city and the world) message at the end of the Mass.
Benedict said that on the joyous day of Easter, “in particular, how can we fail to remember certain African regions, such as Darfur and Somalia, the tormented Middle East, especially the Holy Land, Iraq, Lebanon and finally Tibet, all of which I encourage to seek solutions that will safeguard peace and the common good.”
In Jerusalem, Christian pilgrims sang and prayed on Easter Sunday at the church believed to be built on the site where Jesus rose from the dead, the cavernous Church of the Holy Sepulcher. Protestants, who venerate a spot outside the Old City known as the Garden Tomb as the site of Jesus’ burial, gathered there.
Celebrations Sunday were interrupted in Chicago when six people disrupted an Easter Mass in Holy Name Cathedral by shouting their opposition to the war in Iraq and by squirting fake blood on themselves and parishioners, police said. The three men and three women were arrested.
On HeraldNet
Read the translated text of Pope Benedict XVI’s Easter message on The Herald’s Web site.
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