POPE Francis issued a new call on Easter Sunday for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza and the release of all Israeli hostages. The Pope’s Easter sermon this time focused on peace which marks the most important day in the Christian calendar.
Pope Francis said Mass in a packed St. Peter’s Square, and then delivered the blessing and message “Urbi et Orbi” (to the city and the world) from the central balcony of St. Peter’s Basilica.
The pope has been in poor health in recent weeks, forcing him to repeatedly limit his public speeches and cancel events such as the one he held on Good Friday, as well as briefly skipping the procession at Rome’s Colosseum.
However, the Pope usually takes part in other Holy Week events leading up to Easter, and appeared in relatively good spirits at Sunday’s Mass. Easter celebrates the day on which believers believe that Jesus rose from the dead.
After the service, the pope climbed into his open-topped papal car to tour the squares and streets connecting the Vatican to the Tiber River and greet tens of thousands of people queuing to see him. Pope Francis has repeatedly lamented the death and destruction in the Gaza war.
“I call once again for ensured access to humanitarian aid to Gaza, and call once again for the immediate release of the hostages captured on October 7 and an immediate ceasefire in the Gaza Strip,” he said on Sunday (31/3)
Also read: Pope Francis asks Israel to stop barbaric actions in Palestine
“How much suffering we see in children’s eyes, children forget to smile in these war zones,” he said.
“With their eyes, children ask us: Why? Why all this death? Why all this destruction? War is always an absurdity and a defeat,” he concluded. (AFP/Z-8)
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