Pope Leo XIV celebrated the first Easter morning Mass of his papacy with thousands of people in St. Peter's Square.
The pontiff preached in his homily that, within each person, the weight of sin suffocates our souls or can make us feel as though we are in a tunnel with no way out.
POPE LEO XIV
When the disappointments or the loneliness we experience drain our hopes; when worries or resentments suffocate the joy of living; when we feel sadness or fatigue, when we feel betrayed or rejected, when we must come to terms with our weakness, with suffering, with the burden of daily life.
Pope Leo also referred to our broken, fallen world, where, the pontiff stated, death seems always to be lurking—it can be seen in injustice, partisan selfishness, or the oppression of the weak.
POPE LEO XIV
We see it in violence, in the wounds of the world, in the cry of pain that rises from everywhere at the abuses that crush the weakest, at the idolatry of profit that plunders the resources of the earth, at the violence of war that kills and destroys.
The Vatican was decked out for the celebration, as it is every year. This is how St. Peter’s Square looked…adorned with thousands of colorful flowers from the Netherlands.
This floral tradition runs back four decades to when Pope St. John Paul II visited the coastal European country. Inspired by the floral decorations he saw there, they were used at the 1985 Easter Mass for the first time. In 2026, it marks 40 years since these Dutch flowers first arrived at the Vatican.
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