In his customary Easter speech on Sunday, Pope Francis called for a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas, according to CNN. Speaking to tens of thousands of people in St. Peter\u2019s Square at the Vatican, Francis denounced war as an \u201cabsurdity\u201d and addressed the problems in Europe and the Middle East. In his address on Sunday, the Pope reiterated his plea for an \u201cimmediate ceasefire\u201d in the Israel-Hamas war while also calling for \u201caccess to humanitarian aid be ensured to Gaza\u201d and the \u201cprompt release of the hostages.\u201d He claimed that war-torn children had \u201cforgotten how to smile.\u201d<\/p>\n
Due to ill health, the Pope had to cancel events recently or speak less frequently, but on Easter Sunday, the most significant day in the Christian calendar, he spoke the full \u201cUrbi et Orbi\u201d and seemed happy, waving to the crowd. According to the Vatican, Francis had pulled out a Good Friday service at the last minute \u201cto preserve his health\u201d for the remaining celebrations throughout the weekend, CNN reported. The Pope has been leading Holy Week liturgies, presiding over five since Thursday, including an Easter Vigil in St. Peter\u2019s Basilica on Saturday which lasted more than two hours.<\/p>\n
The Pope has been presiding over five Holy Week liturgies since Thursday, including an Easter Vigil that lasted more than two hours on Saturday at St. Peter\u2019s Basilica. The pope\u2019s well-being since last year, has remained a cause for concern since the time he had an operation on his abdomen and was hospitalised with bronchitis. In recent weeks as well, the Pope was admitted to the hospital for tests. Additionally, when he was ill with the flu, bronchitis, or colds, he would often rely on his assistants to read aloud portions of his speeches, CNN reported.<\/p>\n
However, Francis has also demonstrated a resolve to partake in Holy Week and Easter to the fullest extent possible\u2013the busiest period of the year for any pope. The Pope has stated that he sees the pope as a lifelong ministry and that he has no plans to step down. Due to mobility issues, he often uses a wheelchair, although he has said that his \u201chead\u201d\u2013rather than his legs\u2013rules the church.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
In his customary Easter speech on Sunday, Pope Francis called for a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas, according to CNN\u2026.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":28,"featured_media":38530,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[186],"tags":[4124,12291,12425,1380,12426,3598,4268,493,1418,536,1264,5243],"class_list":["post-38529","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-world","tag-calls-for-ceasefire","tag-easter","tag-easter-speech","tag-gaza","tag-health-concerns","tag-holidays","tag-humanitarian-aid","tag-humanitarian-crisis","tag-israel-hamas-war","tag-palestine","tag-pope-francis","tag-vatican-city"],"reading_time":"2 min read","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/usa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38529","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/usa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/usa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/usa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/28"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/usa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=38529"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/usa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38529\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/usa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/38530"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/usa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=38529"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/usa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=38529"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/usa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=38529"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}