VATICAN CITY -- The following is the text
of the Vatican's official English-language translation of Pope Francis' Easter
Sunday "Urbi et Orbi" (Latin for 'to the city and to the world') read
by him in Italian from the central balcony of St. Peter's Basilica.
"Dear Brothers and Sisters,
Happy Easter!
The Church throughout the world
echoes the angel's message to the women: "Do not be afraid! I know that
you are looking for Jesus who was crucified. He is not here; for he has been
raised . Come, see the place where he lay" (Mt 28:5-6).
This is the culmination of the
Gospel, it is the Good News par excellence: Jesus, who was crucified, is risen!
This event is the basis of our faith and our hope. If Christ were not raised,
Christianity would lose its very meaning; the whole mission of the Church would
lose its impulse, for this is the point from which it first set out and
continues to set out ever anew. The message which Christians bring to the world
is this: Jesus, Love incarnate, died on the cross for our sins, but God the Father
raised him and made him the Lord of life and death. In Jesus, love has
triumphed over hatred, mercy over sinfulness, goodness over evil, truth over
falsehood, life over death.
That is why we tell everyone:
"Come and see!" In every human situation, marked by frailty, sin and
death, the Good News is no mere matter of words, but a testimony to
unconditional and faithful love: it is about leaving ourselves behind and
encountering others, being close to those crushed by life's troubles, sharing
with the needy, standing at the side of the sick, elderly and the outcast.
"Come and see!": Love is more powerful, love gives life, love makes
hope blossom in the wilderness.
With this joyful certainty in our
hearts, today we turn to you, risen Lord!
Help us to seek you and to find
you, to realize that we have a Father and are not orphans; that we can love and
adore you.
Help us to overcome the scourge
of hunger, aggravated by conflicts and by the immense wastefulness for which we
are often responsible.
Enable us to protect the
vulnerable, especially children, women and the elderly, who are at times
exploited and abandoned.
Enable us to care for our
brothers and sisters struck by the Ebola epidemic in Guinea Conakry, Sierra
Leone and Liberia, and to care for those suffering from so many other diseases
which are also spread through neglect and dire poverty.
Comfort all those who cannot
celebrate this Easter with their loved ones because they have been unjustly
torn from their affections, like the many persons, priests and laity, who in
various parts of the world have been kidnapped.
Comfort those who have left their
own lands to migrate to places offering hope for a better future and the
possibility of living their lives in dignity and, not infrequently, of freely
professing their faith.
We ask you, Lord Jesus, to put an
end to all war and every conflict, whether great or small, ancient or recent.
We pray in a particular way for
Syria, that all those suffering the effects of the conflict can receive needed
humanitarian aid and that neither side will again use deadly force, especially
against the defenseless civil population, but instead boldly negotiate the
peace long awaited and long overdue!
We ask you to comfort the victims
of fratricidal acts of violence in Iraq and to sustain the hopes raised by the
resumption of negotiations between Israelis and Palestinians.
We beg for an end to the
conflicts in the Central African Republic and a halt to the brutal terrorist
attacks in parts of Nigeria and the acts of violence in South Sudan.
We ask that hearts be turned to
reconciliation and fraternal concord in Venezuela.
By your resurrection, which this
year we celebrate together with the Churches that follow the Julian calendar,
we ask you to enlighten and inspire the intiatives that promote peace in
Ukraine so that all those involved, with the support of the international
community, will make every effort to prevent violence and, in a spirit of unity
and dialogue, chart a path for the country's future.
Lord, we pray to you for all the peoples of the
earth: You who have conquered death, grant us your life, grant us your
peace!"
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