In his first Easter message, the Holy Father called on those who wield weapons to lay them aside
Pope Leo XIV announced on Sunday that he will preside over a prayer vigil for peace on April 11 in St. Peter’s Basilica. In his first Easter Urbi et Orbi message, the Holy Father made a strong appeal for wars to cease and for peoples and nations to return to the path of dialogue.
Rather than offering a traditional survey of the world’s principal geopolitical flashpoints, Pope Leo centered his Easter reflection on the spiritual foundations of peace. He presented the Resurrection of Christ as God’s answer to a world deeply wounded by violence, hatred, and indifference.
“Easter is the triumph of life over death, of light over darkness, of love over hatred,” the Pope said, while also recalling that this victory was won at immense cost. Christ, he noted, endured an unjust condemnation, mockery, torture, and the shedding of his blood upon the Cross.
The Holy Father emphasized that Christ’s victory over death was not achieved through worldly force, but through divine love. “This power,” he said, “is God himself, for God is the love that creates, gives life, remains faithful to the end, forgives, and redeems.”
Pope Leo added that Christ, the victorious King, overcame through total trust in the will of the Father and in the Father’s saving plan. He said that Jesus pursued the way of dialogue to the very end, not merely in speech, but in action: by becoming man to seek the lost, by taking the form of a servant to liberate those in bondage, and by surrendering himself to death so that mortal man might receive life.
The Pope also stressed that the power of the Resurrection is wholly free of violence. He compared it to the heart of a person wounded by injustice who rejects the urge for revenge and instead prays with compassion for the one who caused the offense. This, he said, is the true strength that can bring peace to humanity, because it gives rise to relationships marked by respect among persons, within families, across societies, and among nations.
Reflecting further, Pope Leo described the Resurrection as the beginning of a renewed human family. In the Risen Christ, he said, a new humanity is born — one called into the true promised land, where justice, freedom, and peace prevail, and where all recognize one another as brothers and sisters, children of the one Father who is love, life, and light.
At the same time, the Holy Father warned against the danger of growing accustomed to violence. He lamented that many have become desensitized to death, to the hatred and division left behind by conflict, and to the social and economic consequences that wars impose upon entire peoples.
Recalling an expression often used by Pope Francis, Leo XIV spoke of a growing “globalization of indifference” and urged Christians never to accept evil as something inevitable. “We cannot remain indifferent,” he said, “nor can we surrender ourselves to evil.”
Quoting Saint Augustine — “If you fear death, love the Resurrection” — the Pope called the faithful to cling to the hope of the Risen Christ, who has conquered evil and offers authentic peace. He clarified that the peace Christ gives is not merely the silence of weapons, but a peace that enters the human heart and transforms it from within.
The Holy Father then issued a direct appeal: “Let those who bear arms lay them down. Let those who have the authority to unleash war choose instead the path of peace.” He made clear that true peace cannot be imposed through force, but must be sought through encounter and dialogue rather than domination.
Concluding his message, Pope Leo XIV invited the faithful to join him on April 11 in St. Peter’s Basilica for the peace vigil. On this day of Easter joy, he said, Christians should renounce every desire for conflict, domination, and power, and implore the Lord to grant peace to a world ravaged by war and burdened by hatred and indifference.
The Pope ended by offering Easter greetings in several languages before concluding in Latin.
