Pope Francis called for peace and celebrated the 'hope and dignity' of Easter


"Today we implore fruits of peace upon the entire world," Pope Francis said in his Easter homily Sunday, "beginning with the beloved and long suffering land of Syria whose people are worn down by an apparently endless war."
While he celebrated the resurrection of Christ, Francis mourned the weekend's violence in the Israel-Palestine conflict, "beseech[ing] fruits of reconciliation for the Holy Land, also experiencing in these days the wounds of ongoing conflict that do not spare the defenseless, for Yemen and for the entire Middle East, so that dialogue and mutual respect may prevail over division and violence."
The pope also addressed tensions over North Korea's nuclear weapons development, as well as refugee crises around the globe. The resurrection of Jesus "bears fruits of hope and dignity," he said, "where there are deprivation and exclusion, hunger and unemployment, where there are migrants and refugees — so often rejected by today’s culture of waste — and victims of the drug trade, human trafficking, and contemporary forms of slavery."
The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
A free daily email with the biggest news stories of the day – and the best features from TheWeek.com
Bonnie Kristian was a deputy editor and acting editor-in-chief of TheWeek.com. She is a columnist at Christianity Today and author of Untrustworthy: The Knowledge Crisis Breaking Our Brains, Polluting Our Politics, and Corrupting Christian Community (forthcoming 2022) and A Flexible Faith: Rethinking What It Means to Follow Jesus Today (2018). Her writing has also appeared at Time Magazine, CNN, USA Today, Newsweek, the Los Angeles Times, and The American Conservative, among other outlets.
-
October 15 editorial cartoons
Cartoons Wednesday's political cartoons include new DOJ lawyers, trick or treating with ICE, and shaky foundations for peace
-
The Paul Thomas Anderson films to watch next
The Week Recommends Best movies from the director of One Battle After Another
-
Who are the new-wave hackers bringing the world to a halt?
The Explainer ‘Groups’ and ‘states’ are beginning to form concerning partnerships with new ways to commit cybercrime
-
Hungary’s Krasznahorkai wins Nobel for literature
Speed Read László Krasznahorkai is the author of acclaimed novels like ‘The Melancholy of Resistance’ and ‘Satantango’
-
Primatologist Jane Goodall dies at 91
Speed Read She rose to fame following her groundbreaking field research with chimpanzees
-
Florida erases rainbow crosswalk at Pulse nightclub
Speed Read The colorful crosswalk was outside the former LGBTQ nightclub where 49 people were killed in a 2016 shooting
-
Trump says Smithsonian too focused on slavery's ills
Speed Read The president would prefer the museum to highlight 'success,' 'brightness' and 'the future'
-
Trump to host Kennedy Honors for Kiss, Stallone
Speed Read Actor Sylvester Stallone and the glam-rock band Kiss were among those named as this year's inductees
-
White House seeks to bend Smithsonian to Trump's view
Speed Read The Smithsonian Institution's 21 museums are under review to ensure their content aligns with the president's interpretation of American history
-
Charlamagne Tha God irks Trump with Epstein talk
Speed Read The radio host said the Jeffrey Epstein scandal could help 'traditional conservatives' take back the Republican Party
-
CBS cancels Colbert's 'Late Show'
Speed Read 'The Late Show with Stephen Colbert' is ending next year