Pope Francis delivered a plea for peace in his first Easter Sunday message to the world, decrying seemingly endless conflict in the Middle East, Africa and the Korean peninsula.
In his first celebrating Mass on the most important day in the Church's calendar, he prayed along with more than 250,000 people in flower-bedecked St Peter's Square.
Francis shared in his flock's exuberance as the crowd celebrated Christianity's core belief that Jesus Christ rose from the dead following crucifixion.
After Mass, he stepped aboard the Popemobile for a cheerful spin through the joyous crowd, kissing babies and patting children on the head.
One admirer of both the Pope and of his favourite football team, Argentina's Saints of San Lorenzo, insisted Francis take a team jersey he was waving at the pontiff. A delighted Francis obliged, briefly holding up the shirt, and the crowd roared in approval.
Francis has repeatedly put concern for the poor and suffering at the centre of his messages, and pursued his promotion of the causes of peace and social justice in the Easter speech delivered from the central balcony of St Peter's Basilica, from which he was introduced to the world as the first Latin American Pope on March 13, shortly after his election.
He said he was joyfully aiming his Easter greetings, at "every house and every family, especially where the suffering is greatest, in hospitals, in prisons".
Francis prayed Jesus would inspire people to "change hatred into love, vengeance into forgiveness, war into peace".
In his softly and slowly-pronounced speech, Francis defined Easter as an "exodus, the passage of human beings from slavery to sin and evil to the freedom of love and goodness".
As popes before him have, he urged Israelis and Palestinians, who "struggle to find the road of agreement" to find the courage to resume peace talks and end a conflict that "has lasted all too long".
And, in reflecting on the two-year-old Syrian crisis, Francis asked: "How much suffering must there still be before a political solution can be found?"
The Pope also expressed the desire for a spirit of reconciliation on the Korean peninsula, where North Korea says it has entered a state of war with South Korea.
He also decried violence in Africa, where he singled out for condemnation terrorists' hostage-taking, as well as strife in Mali and warfare in the Democratic Republic of Congo and in the Central African Republic, which have driven people from their homes.
The first pontiff to come from the Jesuits, an order with special concern for the poor, and the first Pope to name himself after St Francis, a medieval figure who renounced wealth to preach to the down-and-out, Francis lamented that the world is "still divided by greed looking for easy gain, wounded by the selfishness which threats human life and the family, selfishness that continues in human trafficking, the most extensive form of slavery in this 21st century".
Earlier, Francis celebrated Mass on the esplanade in front of the basilica. He frequently bowed his head as if in silent reflection.
While Francis has just begun to make his mark on the Church, he has made it plain he has no desire to embrace much of the pomp customarily associated with the office, declining ornate outfits and only accepting a red stole when it was time to give the crowd his solemn blessing.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article