"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."