Pope Leo urges peace in first Easter Mass as Christians celebrate in Jerusalem, Gaza and Tehran
Source: AP
By COLLEEN BARRY and PAOLO SANTALUCIA
Updated 10:02 AM CDT, April 5, 2026
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VATICAN CITY (AP) — Pope Leo XIV celebrated his first Easter Mass as pontiff with a call Sunday to lay down arms and seek peace to global conflicts through dialogue, but he departed from a tradition of listing the world’s woes by name in the Urbi et Orbi blessing from the loggia of St. Peter’s Basilica.
Leo, the first U.S.-born pope, emphasized Easter’s message of hope as a celebration of Jesus’ resurrection after being crucified.
“Let us allow our hearts to be transformed by his immense love for us! 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!” the pope implored.
With the U.S.-Israeli war on Iran in its second month and Russia’s ongoing campaign in Ukraine, Leo acknowledged a sense of indifference “to the deaths of thousands of people ... to the repercussions of hatred and division that conflicts sow … to the economic and social consequences they produce.’’
Read more: https://apnews.com/article/vatican-pope-easter-urbi-et-orbi-611de44cf58ffa153f00ae1145ad3130
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