ROME — Pope Leo XIV delivered a powerful call for peace and dialogue on Easter Sunday, urging those with the power to wage war to instead choose reconciliation, in his first Easter message as head of the Catholic Church.
According to Antigua News Room, the pontiff addressed thousands of faithful gathered in St. Peter's Square from the basilica's balcony, delivering a message shaped by the ongoing conflicts and suffering across the globe.
"Let us abandon every desire for conflict, domination and power, and implore the Lord to grant his peace to a world ravaged by wars and marked by a hatred and indifference that make us feel powerless in the face of evil," Pope Leo said.
He continued: "Let those who have weapons lay them down. Let those who have the power to unleash wars choose peace. Not a peace imposed by force, but through dialogue. Not with the desire to dominate others, but to encounter them."
Among the crowd, one group held up a poster in Italian reading: "Pope Leo we are with you, guide our future."
In his address, Leo echoed the late Pope Francis' phrase about the "globalization of indifference," acknowledging that people are "growing accustomed to violence, resigning ourselves to it and becoming indifferent." He also described the power of Easter — when Christians celebrate the resurrection of Jesus Christ — as "entirely nonviolent."
The pontiff announced a special prayer vigil for peace to be held in St. Peter's Basilica on Saturday, April 11. The late Pope Francis organised a similar vigil in 2013 focused on the Syrian civil war, which drew approximately 100,000 attendees.
Following his address, Leo wished the gathered crowd a happy Easter in 10 languages, including Arabic, Chinese and Latin, before reciting the Regina Coeli prayer and delivering the traditional Urbi et Orbi blessing — meaning "To the City and to the World."
Leo XIV's first Holy Week unfolded against the backdrop of active global conflicts. The first US-born pontiff has expressed hope that President Donald Trump can find an "off-ramp" to end the conflict in the Middle East. On Good Friday, he carried the cross for the entirety of the "Way of the Cross" service at Rome's Colosseum, where prayers were offered for deported immigrant children and a warning was issued to world leaders that their actions will face judgement.
Earlier on Sunday, in his Easter homily, Leo addressed the themes of hope amid war, climate change and widespread suffering. "The cry of pain that rises from every corner because of the abuses that crush the weakest among us, because of the idolatry of profit that plunders the earth's resources, because of the violence of war that kills and destroys" — all of this, he said, is answered by the Easter message.
"Often it seems that God does not exist: all around us we see persistent injustice, evil, indifference and cruelty. But it is also true that in the midst of darkness something new always springs to life and sooner or later produces fruit," the pontiff said. "Easter gives us this hope, as we remember that in the risen Christ a new creation is possible every day."
