Pope Leo XIV presides over the Easter vigil as part of the Holy Week celebrations at St Peter's Basilica in the Vatican.
Image: AFP
Pope Leo XIV at the weekend urged “those who have the power to unleash wars” to “choose peace” in his first Easter blessing as pontiff with the Middle East conflict raging.
Christians around the world marked the holiday under the shadow of a war that began with US-Israeli strikes against Iran on February 28 and has drawn in the whole region, convulsing the global economy.
“We are growing accustomed to violence, resigning ourselves to it, and becoming indifferent,” the pope told a crowd in St Peter’s Square.
“Indifferent to the deaths of thousands of people,” he added. “Indifferent to the repercussions of hatred and division that conflicts sow.”
The leader of the world’s 1.4 billion Roman Catholics, who was elected in May 2025, also called for a prayer vigil at the Vatican on April 11.
He paid tribute to his predecessor pope Francis who last appeared in public on Easter Sunday last year – a few hours before his death.
Breaking with a tradition established by his predecessors, he did not specifically directly refer to any country or region caught up in crisis.
Leo has repeatedly called for peace in the Middle East and this week directly urged US President Donald Trump to find an “off-ramp”.
He spoke of “a world ravaged by wars and marked by a hatred and indifference that make us feel powerless in the face of evil”.
In Jerusalem, there was silence in the alleyways of the Old City, left deserted by Israel’s conflict in Gaza and now the Middle East war.
Israeli authorities have severely restricted access to the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, where the faithful commemorate Christ’s crucifixion and resurrection, because of security considerations.
On routes approaching the church, police checkpoints screened a small number of worshippers allowed near the site.
All shops in the area were closed, heightening the sense of emptiness.
“It’s very hard for all of us because it’s our holiday... It’s really hard to want to pray but to come here and find nothing.
“Everything is closed,” said Christina Toderas, 44, from Romania.
“I must say I was somewhat frustrated,” he said, recalling how the feast is generally celebrated every year.
“The doors are still closed,” the Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem, Cardinal Pierbattista Pizzaballa, said in his Easter Vigil homily at the Holy Sepulchre.
Pizzaballa was prevented by Israeli police from holding mass in the church last Sunday, an incident that sparked international indignation.
“The silence is almost absolute, broken perhaps by the distant sound of what war continues to sow in this holy and torn land,” he said, according to a text of his sermon issued by his office.
In Lebanon, majority Christian areas in the south of the country are caught in the crossfire between Israel and the Iran-backed Hezbollah movement.
AFP