VATICAN CITY — Pope Benedict XVI sought to give a message of hope on Easter Sunday to victims of wars, poverty and financial turmoil, saying it was urgently needed to overcome the miseries that are plaguing Africa, the Middle East and other parts of the globe.
Benedict delivered his “Urbi et Orbi” message — Latin for “to the city and the world” — after celebrating Easter Mass before tens of thousands of people who packed St. Peter’s Square and the boulevard leading up to it.
Benedict said hope was needed around the globe.
“At a time of world food shortage, of financial turmoil, of old and new forms of poverty, of disturbing climate change, of violence and depravation which force many to leave their homelands in search of a less precarious form of existence, of the ever-present threat of terrorism, of growing fears over the future, it is urgent to rediscover grounds for hope,” he said.
In Jerusalem, the faithful celebrated Mass at the Church of the Holy Sepulcher, traditionally believed to mark the site where Jesus was crucified, buried and resurrected. Friars marched into the church to the sound of bagpipes, followed by clergymen in purple capes and others bearing crosses.
And in the earthquake-ravaged central Italian city of L’Aquila, survivors gathered in makeshift chapels set up in tent cities that are housing some of the 55,000 people driven from their homes by Monday’s 6.3-magnitude temblor.
