Plea for peace marks pope’s Easter sermon

He urges dialogue in Syria, Ukraine, aid for the needy

A woman holds a rooster during the Easter religious service at the Pasarea Monastery outside Bucharest, Romania, early Sunday, April 20, 2014. Romanians in rural areas bring farm animals to be blessed in church after the Easter service to protect them from disease in the coming year.(AP Photo/Andreea Alexandru, Mediafax) ROMANIA OUT
A woman holds a rooster during the Easter religious service at the Pasarea Monastery outside Bucharest, Romania, early Sunday, April 20, 2014. Romanians in rural areas bring farm animals to be blessed in church after the Easter service to protect them from disease in the coming year.(AP Photo/Andreea Alexandru, Mediafax) ROMANIA OUT

VATICAN CITY - Marking Christianity’s most hopeful day, Pope Francis made an Easter Sunday plea for peace and dialogue in Ukraine and Syria, for an end to terrorist attacks against Christians in Nigeria, and for more attention to the hungry and neediest close to home.

More than 150,000 people - Romans and pilgrims, young and old - turned out for the Mass that Francis celebrated at an altar set up under a canopy on the steps of St. Peter’s Basilica.

So great were their numbers that they overflowed from sprawling St. Peter’s Square, which was bedecked with row after row of potted daffodils, sprays of blue hyacinths and bunches of white roses. Waving flags from the pope’s native Argentina as well as from Brazil, Mexico, Britain, Poland and many other countries, they also filled the broad boulevard leading from the square to the Tiber River.

Easter is the culmination of Holy Week and marks Christian belief that Jesus rose from the dead after his crucifixion.

Francis noted that this year, the Catholic Church’s celebration of Easter coincided with that of Orthodox churches, which have many followers in Ukraine.

Francis prayed that God would “enlighten and inspire the initiatives that promote peace in Ukraine, so that all those involved, with the support of the international community, will make every effort to prevent violence.”

In eastern Ukraine, the holiday was marred by a deadly shooting Sunday fueled by tensions between pro-Russian supporters in the east and those loyal to an interim government in Kiev. The clash appeared to defy an international agreement reached last week in hopes of ending months of unrest.

Francis also prayed that all sides in Syria will be moved to “boldly negotiate the peace long awaited and long overdue.” Syria has been wracked by a three-year civil war that has cost 150,000 lives and forced millions to flee the country.

Christians make up about 5 percent of Syria’s population. In comments to mark Easter there, the Greek Orthodox patriarch vowed that Christians there “will not submit” to extremists who attack “our people and holy places.”

Francis makes a pilgrimage to Jordan, the Palestinian territories and Israel next month, so on Easter he prayed that hopes sparked by the resumption of Mideast peace negotiations will be sustained.

Thousands of pilgrims from around the world flocked to celebrate Easter in the Holy Land, where Christian communities, as well as elsewhere in the Middle East, have been declining as the faithful flee regional turmoil.

Latin Patriarch Fouad Twal led Mass at the Church of the Holy Sepulcher in Jerusalem on Sunday. The site is where Christians believe Jesus was crucified, buried and resurrected.

In the West Bank town of Bethlehem, worshippers prayed and lit candles at the Church of the Nativity, traditionally believed to be the birthplace of Jesus.

Easter was also celebrated in Gaza, where less than 3,000 Christians live among about 1.7 million Muslims.

Israeli police entered the compound of Jerusalem’s holiest site to disperse Palestinians who were throwing rocks at them Sunday. The compound, known to Jews as the Temple Mount, is the holiest site in Judaism. Known to Muslims as the “Noble Sanctuary,” it is Islam’s third-holiest site. It is one of the most sensitive sites in the region.

Tensions have been high at the site for months, and similar incidents play out almost every Friday after Muslim prayers.

Spokesman Micky Rosenfeld said police arrested 16 masked Palestinians who threw rocks and firecrackers as the site was opened to tourists on Sunday. Two officers were hurt, he said.

Francis also spoke of those suffering in Africa from an epidemic of deadly Ebola and urged a halt to “brutal terrorist attacks” in parts of Nigeria.

Nigerians marked Easter with heightened security against a spreading Islamic uprising, mourning the deaths of 75 bomb blast victims and fearful of the fate of 85 abducted schoolgirls. The homegrown terror network Boko Haram has claimed responsibility for last week’s rush-hour explosion in the capital, Abuja, and threatened more attacks.

In Venezuela, there have been hopes Vatican mediation can help end the country’s violent political unrest, and Francis urged that “hearts be turned to reconciliation and fraternal concord” there.

But Francis’ Easter message also urged people to pay attention to the needy close to home. He said the “good news” of Easter’s joy means “leaving ourselves behind and encountering others, being close to those crushed by life’s troubles, sharing with the needy, standing at the side of the sick, elderly and the outcast.”

He denounced the “scourge of hunger,” which he said was “aggravated by conflicts and by the immense wastefulness for which we are often responsible.”

Francis has set an austere tone in his papacy, forsaking an ornate apostolic palace apartment for a simple guesthouse on the Vatican grounds and rejecting limousines for regular cars.

Cheering and applauding, the crowd tried to catch a glimpse of the pontiff as he circled around in his white popemobile before going to the basilica’s balcony to deliver his commentary.

Reflecting the worldwide reach of the Catholic Church, faithful read aloud prayers and passages from the Bible in Hindi, French, Chinese, German, Korean, Spanish, Italian and English.

In the U.S., thousands in Washington attended Easter services.

Cathleen Drew, 53, of Arlington, Va., knew to dress warmly and to bring extra blankets to the Easter sunrise service at the Lincoln Memorial, hosted by the Capital Church of Vienna, Va. She has been attending the Easter celebration for 20 years, and on this day had come with her husband, three children and her sister-in-law, who was there for the first time.

“To be able to come down here to our nation’s capital, the seat of government, to have the freedom to have this service, it’s pretty incredible,” she said. “You think of other countries where they don’t get to do this - they get persecuted.”

One attendee, Mary, a 55-year-old hairstylist from Iran who lives in Arlington, said this was the case for her.Saying she was afraid of inviting trouble in Iran if she gave her last name, she described how she had hosted several friends who spent the night at her house to attend the service.

“All night I woke up” repeatedly, she said. “I was so excited, I didn’t want to miss it.”

Elsewhere in the city, others gathered for Easter services, including President Barack Obama and his family. They visited the Nineteenth Street Baptist Church in Washington, where the pews were full.

At the service, Obama high-fived a baby boy and hugged attendees, and first lady Michelle Obama blew kisses from the pew.

Pastor Derrick Harkins asked that God give Obama “every measure of encouragement” and “wisdom” and “tend to his spirit” under the weight of criticism.Loud “yes” responses from worshippers rose up after each sentence. Harkins also offered prayers for the first lady and the Obama daughters, Malia and Sasha.

The National Community Church, which has seven sites in the Washington area and thousands of congregants, celebrated its first Easter service at the Lincoln Theatre, where Ella Fitzgerald, Louis Armstrong and Duke Ellington once performed.

The boisterous sound of contemporary Christian rock reverberated as a spotlight bounced over the crowd of 800 mostly young-adult congregants.

Dave Schmidgall, the pastor for the church’s U Street campus, said the significance of the new location echoed in more than just the musical focus of the service.

“We fight tooth and nail to preserve diversity in our community. This is the most divided city, I think, in the country - politically, racially, socioeconomically,” Schmidgall said. “U Street is the corridor where black and white and Hispanic sort of all mush. And if we can be humbly coming in and saying this is what we’re about, we can unite people.” Information for this article was contributed by Frances D’Emilio, Michelle Faul, Ian Deitch, Yuras Karmanau and staff members of The Associated Press and by Tara Bahrampour, Hamil Harris, Julie Zauzmer and staff members of The Washington Post.

Front Section, Pages 1 on 04/21/2014

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