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POPE FRANCIS PRAYED for a “political solution” in Syria and for “reconciliation” on the Korean peninsula in his first Easter Sunday message in front of a crowd in St Peter’s Square.
Latin America’s first pontiff also issued an appeal for hostages held by militants in Nigeria and condemned human trafficking as “the most extensive form of slavery in this 21st century”.
The pope delivered his “Urbi et Orbi” blessing to Rome and the world from the same balcony of St Peter’s Basilica where he made his first appearance after his momentous election to the papacy this month.
Speaking in front of some 250,000 people from around the world in the Vatican, Francis prayed for “dear Syria, for its people torn by conflict and for the many refugees who await help and comfort.
“How much blood has been shed! And how much suffering must there still be before a political solution to the crisis will be found?” he said.
“On the Korean peninsula, may disagreements be overcome and a renewed spirit of reconciliation grow,” he said, a day after North Korea declared it was in a “state of war” with South Korea.
Francis also prayed for Nigeria “where great numbers of people, including children, are held hostage by terrorist groups” — an apparent reference to a French family kidnapped in Cameroon and believed held by the Nigerian group Boko Haram.
The pope also toured St Peter’s Square in his open-top “popemobile” — kissing babies and waving to cheering crowds who held up flags from around the world including his native Argentina.
Easter is the holiest day in the Christian calendar and celebrates the belief in Jesus Christ’s death and resurrection. It is the culmination of weeks of intense prayer for Christians.
At an Easter Vigil in St Peter’s Basilica on Saturday, the first pontiff from outside Europe in nearly 1,300 years of Church history reached out to non-believers and lapsed Catholics, urging them to “step forward” to God.
“He will receive you with open arms,” said the 76-year-old, formerly Buenos Aires archbishop Jorge Bergoglio, who has called for the Roman Catholic Church to be closer to ordinary people and the needy.
The Catholic Church is struggling in the face of rising secularism, particularly in Europe where attendances at Mass are falling sharply.
On Sunday, Francis prayed God’s message would reach “every house and every family, especially where the suffering is greatest, in hospitals, in prisons.”
“How many deserts, even today, do human beings need to cross! Above all, the desert within, when we have no love for God or neighbour,” he said.
On Holy Thursday, Francis celebrated an unprecedented Mass in a youth prison in Rome in which he washed the feet of 12 inmates including two girls and two Muslims — a ritual seen as a gesture of humility towards the 12 apostles attributed to Jesus.
Previous popes only ever performed the ritual with priests or Catholic laymen.
On Good Friday, Francis presided over a torch-lit ceremony at the Colosseum in Rome, where Christians are believed to have been martyred. There, he prayed for peace in the Middle East and urged dialogue with “our Muslim brothers”.
The new pope has said he wants a “poor Church for poor people” and has adopted a less formal style than that of his predecessor Benedict XVI, already breaking with several Vatican traditions in his first few weeks in office.
A moderate conservative on Catholic doctrine, he was known in Argentina for his humble lifestyle, his outreach in poor neighbourhoods and his strong social advocacy during his homeland’s devastating economic crisis.
Vatican experts say he is yet to begin tackling key problems for the Church, however, including reform of the scandal-ridden Vatican bureaucracy.
Analysts are keeping a close eye on his appointments to top Vatican posts after Easter amid calls for a radical overhaul.
The status of the powerful Vatican bank, which is under investigation in Italy for money laundering but has made efforts in recent years to reform itself, is also a pressing issue.
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What about working individual and family? Where is there increase, you know, the very people of working age who go out and keep the country financed.
@Tipper Irie: Tax cuts have been mentioned.
@Tipper Irie: Be prepared to keep being a tax payer, I’m 70 on a state pension and have to work to top it up
@Colm Kane: always mentioned, but usually smoke, mirrors and clever maths result in a different outcome.
@Tipper Irie: Don’t forget that most pensioners worked and paid taxes all their lives and still do. Of course the current working people and families deserve to be locked after.
The Government trying to scrape back votes before the next GE by the looks of it.
You’d swear there is an election on the horizon
@Brian Madden: I’d say you’re right. Probably that’s why Joan Collins (right 2change) raised the issue in the Dáil today and pressed Varadkar about it….
Ahh Leo….more money for the wealthiest demographic in the country
Try theses (Bertie) manoeuvres all you want but your heading for oblivion
@David Cotter: Those on a state pension are not wealthy.
Proportional increases to the state pension are scandalous. How can it be right to increase the top rate by €12 but pensioners on a lower amount receive as little as €9 or less. If the pension is increased by a euro amount, then all pensioners should receive it.
@Deirdre Fitzpatrick: Yes the Bonkers Pension Systems Victims throw under the bus as usual
Leo the liar strikes again.
Trying to buy votes, too little to late. Bye bye
Open comments on the roscommon case, are ye afraid of something.
Please no more. The increase will not come into effect for 8 months.
So we will have endless bollix talk of will it be 5 or the cost of living multiplied by r squared and age action saying it should be a trillion billion and when we are all worn out it will turn out to be less than the price of a pint in Temple Bar.
Please sir, may I have some more?
MORE?
How is this news? The pension has increased virtually every budget since the foundation of the State.
More wobble talk for Leo. Of course there will be an increase, the cost of living has gone through the roof. But this fella wants you to think it was his idea. Spoofer
Could we just get back the levy they took off our pension!!?
FO Leo!
Vote buying begins, with your money and you’ll be paying for it forever!
Leo is not loyal to the Irish people or the Irish republic.
Won’t vote for you even though!
I love Leo. Please have my babies Leo.
Will it be too late to save them?
Hopefully not..
Election next year and a raft of retirements from the front benches this year
For those who’s comments are being deleted by the shadow banners and thejournal.ie
Stop replying to people directly…start new threads when you reply…this means the shadow banners have more work to delete comments individually instead of an entire thread…make as much work as possible for them so they can’t cover all posts…
Copy your post and when they delete it repost it…if and when they get you banned set up another account…
Make it impossible to cover all comments that many will end up staying up…they will also have to search for your comments to mass false report them….
Also if thejournal.ie is blocking certain reposts just change a few letters one in a few words here and their with the letter x…or anything just once theirs some minor changes it will repost…and always when reposting make these minor changes each repost….I think theirs an algorithm that gets alerted to the post deleted and the eventually bans the user….so slightly modify each repost….
Delete your cookies to reduce targeted mass false deleting and thejournal.ie algorithm associating your account to those deletes….which helps insidious and maliciously delete comments…
The establishment loyalist fascist shadow banners and thejournal.ie are in full steam ahead insidious and malicious deleting of comments that dont tow the line and follow the establishment narrative…
Their you have folks….I’ve just proved that theirs a insidious and malicious subset of users on here mass false reporting other users to in order to suppress others and censor you…because they’ve decided their judge, jurry and executioner of what people can and cannot say….their long time users many of them in this insidious and malicious group…they always comment with glee that people’s comments won’t last and when a comment is deleted the comment with such glee again….
Thejournal.ie needs to permanently ban these people….Thejournal.ie knows who they are and how the harresed many on here deleting their comments and getting people banned…
I personally have had multiple different attacks on me by these people in their campaign of harresment…I’ve had veiled threats made against…I’ve had my IP attacked….I’ve must have had 3/4 of my comments deleted…I’ve been banned nearly 80 times because of them…they’ve insulted me from the very moment I expressed an opinion they despised and then treated me with derision…
These are sick people that thejournal.ie needs to deal with…
This comment section should be a place of free and open discussion once the comments fall with in the guidelines….
have your say