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Easter triumphs over death, injustice, deprivation and slavery pope proclaims

VATICAN CITY (CNS): Easter morning dawned bright and sunny at the Vatican, highlighting the thousands of flowers, trees and bushes donated by flower growers in the Netherlands.
 
Before delivering his Urbi et Orbi (To the city and the world) blessing on April 1, Pope Francis prayed made special mention of the ongoing carnage in Syria as well as the recent violence which saw 15 Palestinians killed during protests along Gaza’s border with Israel on March 30.
 
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Christ is risen! Now what are you going to do about it?

Tricia Bølle
 
“Christ is Risen!” 
“He is truly risen!”
 
So goes the (hopefully enthusiastic) call and response of the Christian faithful as we celebrate this truly joyous occasion when our salvation was won and new life given to us through the resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ.







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I believe in the Resurrection

Alleluia! The Lord is Risen! Easter proclamation at the climax of the Service of Light during the vigil is perhaps the strangest and most radical message ever given, reminding the faithful of the victory of Christ over the powers of darkness and death: “Jesus Christ is risen from the dead.” We repeat the words too often that we’ve perhaps forgotten how weird and how wonderful they truly are.
 







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Harassment at Easter

HANOI (UCAN): Plainclothes officials in northwest Vietnam broke into the home of a Catholic family and attempted to take a priest into custody as he was preparing to celebrate Easter Mass.
 
More than 20 men and women, who identified themselves as local officials, barged into the house where around 100 people had gathered for Mass in the town of Muong Khuong, Lao Cai province.
 
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There are signs of life amidst suffering pope tells Rome and the world

ROME (SE): “Today, throughout the world, the Church echoes once more the astonishing message of the first disciples, ‘Jesus is risen! He is truly risen, as he said!’” Pope Francis proclaimed in introducing his traditional To the City of Rome and the World (Urbi et Orbi) greeting of Easter Sunday on April 16.
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Immersion in Easter

THERE ARE MANY messages contained in the rich Easter liturgies, but undoubtedly their seeds are to be found in the preparatory period of Holy Week in the stories of Lazarus being raised from the dead and the cure of the man born blind.







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Lofty and less philosophical incentives for baptism

HONG KONG (UCAN): Around 3,200 adults were baptised in Hong Kong parishes on Easter Night, March 26, a few hundred less than in the previous two years.

Middle-aged Paul Lo said, “I think the seed of faith was sown in my mind a long time ago when I studied in a Salesian primary school.”
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Easter permits for Jerusalem given out freely in Gaza

GAZA (SE): For the first time, the Church made a mass application to the Israeli authorities for Catholics to cross from Gaza to take part in the Easter ceremonies in Jerusalem.

The Orthodox Churches have been doing it in the past, but report that not everyone who applies is successful.
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An Easter without fuss in China

BEIJING (AsiaNews): On Easter night, March 26, more than 100 adults were baptised in the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception in Beijing.

In presenting themselves to Bishop Joseph Li Shan, they wrapped their shoulders in white robes and, accompanied by their godparents, professed their adherence to faith in Jesus Christ.
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