At Easter vigil, Pope Francis encourages hope amid ‘icy winds of war’ By Reuters

Written by Philip Pullella

VATICAN CITY (Reuters) – Pope Francis led the world’s Roman Catholics to Easter in a vigil mass Saturday night at St.

Francis, 86, skipped an outdoor event Friday night because of the unusually cold temperatures in Rome. His doctors ordered caution after he was hospitalized last week with bronchitis.

Francis looked fine during the Easter service, during which he baptized eight adult converts to Catholicism.

After beginning the service at the back of the church with the traditional lighting of a large Paschal candle, he was taken in a wheelchair to the front to officiate at Mass.

Easter is the most important day in the Christian liturgical calendar because it celebrates the day the Bible says Jesus rose from the dead.

In his homily, which was read before some 8,000 people in Christendom’s largest church, Francis spoke of the bitterness, dismay, and disappointment that so many feel today.

“We may feel powerless and frustrated before the power of evil, the conflicts that tear apart relationships, the attitudes of calculation and indifference that seem to pervade society, the cancer of corruption, the spread of injustice, the icy winds of war,” he said.

Francis has called for an end to all wars, and since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, he has repeatedly referred to Ukraine and its people as “martyred.”

Francis, reading his homily in a strong and confident voice, said that even when people feel the wellspring of hope running dry, it is important not to freeze with a sense of defeat but rather to seek “inner resurrection” with God’s help.

Francis concludes the Holy Week festivities on Sunday by presiding over the Easter Mass in St. Peter’s Square and then twice a year delivering the blessing and message “Urbi et Orbi” (to the city and the world) from the central outer balcony of St. Peter’s. St. Peter’s Cathedral.