This story has been updated.
By Gary Gately
Pope Leo XIV celebrated his first Easter as pontiff Sunday with a fervent appeal for peace, imploring world leaders to lay down arms and choose dialogue over the death and destruction of war.
“Let us allow ourselves to be transformed by the peace of Christ!” Pope Leo told more than 50,000 worshipers gathered under brilliant blue skies in St. Peter’s Square during his Urbi et Orbi (“To the City and the World”) message.
“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!”
Speaking from the central loggia of St. Peter’s Basilica, the first U.S.-born pope lamented “a world ravaged by wars and marked by a hatred and indifference that make us feel powerless in the face of evil.”
Leo quoted Pope Francis, who in his final Easter blessing a year ago, the day before his death, decried an increasing “globalization of indifference” and added: “What a great thirst for death, for killing, we witness each day in the many conflicts raging in different parts of the world!”
The first U.S.-born pope’s message came hours before a bellicose, expletive-laden Easter Sunday social media post from President Donald J. Trump in which he threatened strikes on Iranian power plants and other critical infrastructure, warning leaders of the Islamic Republic they would be “living in Hell” if they did not open the Strait of Hormuz by Tuesday.
By contrast, Leo said: “The power with which Christ rose is entirely nonviolent. This is the true strength that brings peace to humanity because it fosters respectful relationships at every level: among individuals, families, social groups and nations….
“The power with which Christ rose is entirely nonviolent. We cannot continue to be indifferent! And we cannot resign ourselves to evil!”
The leader of the 1.4 billion-member Catholic Church did not mention individual leaders or countries in his message with the U.S.-Israeli war on Iran in its sixth week and Russia’s ongoing campaign against Ukraine.
Leo’s message came after his increasingly forceful Holy Week calls for peace, including a direct appeal Tuesday to Trump to seek an “off-ramp” to end the Iran war and a Palm Sunday warning that God rejects the prayers of those who invoke religion to justify war.
In an unusually short Urbi et Orbi message followed by millions worldwide on television, radio and social media, the leader of the 1.4 billion-member Catholic Church also announced that he will lead a prayer vigil for peace Saturday at St. Peter’s Basilica.
Pope Leo ended his first Easter message to the world with Easter greetings in ten languages including English, Spanish, Arabic, Chinese and Latin.
Earlier in his homily at Easter an Easter Sunday Mass in St. Peter’s Square, Leo warned against “partisan selfishness” and a “lack of attention given to the most vulnerable.”
“We see it in violence, in the wounds of the world, in the cry of pain that rises from every corner because of the abuses that crush the weakest among us,because of the idolatry of profit that plunders the Earth’s resources, because of the violence of war that kills and destroys,” he said from an open-air altar bedecked in red and white roses.
Read the full texts of Pope Leo XIV’s Urbi et Orbi message and Easter Mass homily.