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POPE-ROUNDUP Apr-17-2006 (950 words) With photos. xxxi
Pope celebrates Easter, urges people, nations to turn away from sin
By Carol Glatz and Cindy Wooden
Catholic News Service
VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- Celebrating the first Holy Week and Easter of his pontificate, Pope Benedict XVI called on individuals and nations to turn away from their sins and accept the love, truth and peace offered by the crucified and risen Christ.
After presiding April 16 over Easter morning Mass amid thousands of flowers and blossoming trees in St. Peter's Square, Pope Benedict solemnly offered his blessing "urbi et orbi" (to the city of Rome and the world), and prayed for peace and justice in the most troubled areas of the world.
While a couple of people at the morning Mass held signs wishing the pope a happy 79th birthday, there was no repeat of the sung wishes that had filled St. Peter's Basilica at 1 a.m. when the Easter Vigil ended.
During his midday Easter blessing, the pope called for "serious and honest negotiations" to find an "honorable solution" to the standoff between Iran and the international community over Iran's nuclear program. He also prayed that "in Iraq may peace finally prevail over the tragic violence that continues mercilessly to claim victims."
The pope called on the international community to come to the rescue of the people of Sudan's Darfur region who continue to be under the threat of genocide and face terror and hunger.
He prayed for peace in the Holy Land and for "patient and persevering dialogue" between Israel and the Palestinian government.
"May the international community, which reaffirms Israel's right to exist in peace, assist the Palestinian people to overcome the precarious conditions in which they live," he said.
With more than 80,000 people gathered in St. Peter's Square for the blessing, Pope Benedict said Christ's resurrection from the dead fulfilled God's promise to save his creatures from the power of sin and death.
"From the risen Christ, all those who are still oppressed by chains of suffering and death look for hope, sometimes even without knowing it," he said.
"May the risen Christ grant that the strength of his life, peace and freedom be experienced everywhere," he said, after offering Easter greetings in 62 languages, including Esperanto, Maori, Arabic and Hebrew.
He told English speakers, "May the grace and joy of the risen Christ be with you all."
Speaking in Dutch, he thanked the Bloemen Bureau of Holland, the International Flower Bulb Centre, Plant Publicity Holland and 20 Dutch flower arrangers for creating a spring garden on the steps of St. Peter's Basilica.
During the April 15 Easter Vigil, Pope Benedict baptized and confirmed seven men and women from six nations, using a small golden shell to trickle the holy water over each catechumen's head.
The young girl and woman from Japan, a young woman from Peru, a teenage boy from Colombia, a young woman from Cameroon, a young man from Albania and another from Belarus also received their first Communion from the pope as he welcomed them into the Catholic Church.
Baptism represents more than just receiving people into the faith or the simple washing away of sin, the pope said in the vigil homily. Baptism ushers in a complete transformation in one's life, making it "no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me," the pope said, quoting St. Paul.
The baptized individual is liberated from his or her isolated existence and plunged into full communion with Christ, he said.
"We grasp hold of the risen Lord" who will "hold us firmly even when our hands grow weak," the pope said.
At the end of the Way of the Cross service at Rome's Colosseum April 14, Pope Benedict called on Christians to be bold and courageous in their faith and help rein in the evil plaguing the world by reaching out to others with love.
Speaking without a text to those gathered at the site where numerous Christians had been killed in ancient Roman times, the pope urged people to be merciful and not sit back and watch injustice and suffering take place.
"We cannot be just spectators in the Way of the Cross," which is not just an event from the past, but is an ever-repeating reality, he said.
The Way of the Cross reflects "all of humanity's sufferings today," including the suffering of abandoned or abused children, threats against the family, the division of the world between rich and poor, and the misery of those suffering from poverty and deprivation, he said.
Earlier April 14, Pope Benedict presided over the Good Friday liturgy of the Lord's Passion, beginning the rite by lying prostrate with his face on a pillow in front of the altar.
The preacher of the papal household, Capuchin Father Raniero Cantalamessa, said in his homily that people needed to be more compassionate and forgiving if the world was "not to slide ever more into the abyss of globalized violence."
Apparently referring to the conflict between Israel and the Palestinian territories, the Capuchin priest said he wondered what would happen if, "in the Near East, the two peoples at war for decades, rather than blaming one another were to begin to think of the suffering of others, to be moved to pity for one another," making the "wall of division" between the two no longer necessary.
There is so much pain and suffering in the world, "we must have some compassion and solidarity for one another," he said.
The pope left the Vatican Easter afternoon to spend a few days resting at the papal villa in Castel Gandolfo, south of Rome. At noon April 17, he recited the "Regina Coeli" prayer with visitors gathered in the villa's courtyard.
END
Copyright (c) 2006 Catholic News Service/USCCB. All rights reserved.
This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or otherwise distributed.
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