In the prayer of the faithful in various languages, an appeal was made to world leaders to seek the common good.
Prayers followed in Ukrainian for the deceased, so that they may participate in the eternal Easter.
After the Eucharist, Pope Francis’ blessing concluded the Easter Mass, with the delivery to “go in peace”, a peace that today needs to be asked for with insistence and prayer.
At the end of the celebration, Pope Francis boarded his Popemobile and greeted the faithful, stopping to return an affectionate gesture to those who have called him or greeted him through a wave.
This was one of the first Popemobile trips down Via della Conciliazione for some time – marking a long-awaited return to normality after the long isolation due to the pandemic.
Meanwhile, Pope Francis lamented what he called an “Easter of war” in his annual address on Sunday, and implicitly criticized Russian President Vladimir Putin.
While Francis has yet to publicly condemn the Russian leader by name, his denunciations of the war in Ukraine have grown stronger.
In his annual “Urbi et Orbi” address, the pontiff made an anguished appeal for peace and called and talked about the “troubling” risk of nuclear warfare.
“May there be peace for war-torn Ukraine, so sorely tried by the violence and destruction of this cruel and senseless war into which it was dragged,” Francis said from the central balcony of St. Peter’s Square.
The pope had earlier celebrated mass in the square, which was packed with worshipers for the Easter ceremony for the first time since the start of the coronavirus pandemic in early 2020.
In a reference to the threat of nuclear warfare, the pope cited a declaration made by scientists in 1955.
“Shall we put an end to the human race, or shall mankind renounce war?” he said, quoting the Russell Einstein Manifesto.
