FIRST AMERICAN POPE DELIVERS EASTER BLESSING

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Tens of thousands of faithful are gathering in St. Peter's Square in Vatican City on the most sacred of holy days, Easter Sunday. Good morning. Happy Easter, everyone, and thank you for joining us. I'm Chanley Painter live in New York. Today, Christians and Catholics around the world celebrate the resurrection of Jesus Christ. The Easter holiday holds profound spiritual significance, symbolizing victory of life over death, and the promise of salvation and eternal life through Jesus Christ. And this year's Mass holds extra special meaning. It marks Pope Leo XIV's first Easter as the Holy Father. He's also the first ever American Pope to give the service, yet it all comes at a time of great pain and sorrow around the world. Two major wars are being fought right now, including one centered in and around the Holy Land itself. The United States and Israel are in an intensifying conflict with Iran. It's a war that has spread across the Middle East, drawing in the Gulf states and Iran's Allied forces, including Hezbollah in Lebanon and Houthi rebels in Yemen. It also comes as the war in Ukraine and Russia rages on for a fourth year. Pope Leo is likely to speak about those conflicts during his Easter papal blessing. It's one of the most closely watched moments of the year for the Vatican. It's often used to speak directly to global conflicts and humanitarian crises. This year, Pope Leo's message is expected to focus heavily on peace as millions around the world look to the church for guidance during a time of ongoing violence and uncertainty. With me now, Fox News religious contributor and theologian Jonathan Morris. He joins me here in studio. Good morning. Happy Easter. Thank you for being here.

SPEAKER_03 1:47

Thank you very much. This is going to be a great time for viewers just to be peaceful. Over the next couple of hours, we will be watching as this holy sacrifice of the mass, as it's referred to in Cat in Catholic theology, goes on there in St. Peter's Square. We can see that view right now of tens of thousands of people of people on there waiting for the procession to begin. I believe it begins at at 4 15 a.m. Eastern time this year. And Pope Leo, first American Pope, remember it was a year ago today, Easter, that it seemed like Pope Francis was still doing okay. He had come back. Yes. He kind of come back. Yes. But it was the day after Easter that we got the word that Pope Francis had died, and who would have guessed that we'd be here watching the first American Pope?

SPEAKER_00 2:39

And every year, I mean thousands just swarmed to the Vatican for this special day. What will we be seeing over the next couple of hours?

SPEAKER_03 2:47

So we will try to allow our viewers to get the sights and the sounds of peace and of worship as much as we possibly can. So we won't be speaking over all of the beautiful, beautiful music. A lot of people at home will be able to just enjoy it.

SPEAKER_00 3:03

The visuals. I that's one of my favorite parts about watching the Easter Mass at the Vatican is it's just visually colorful and just almost cinematic.

SPEAKER_03 3:15

It really is. They're the best at it. Now they have a great, they have a great uh platform there. You know, you've got you're looking at St. Peter's St. Peter's Basilica, you've got a design by Michelangelo, you have that the amazing piazza, St. Peter's Square there. And the camera, the the camera work that the Vatican does is so good. It really is. Uh we'll hear from a lot of our camera guys today, like, oh my gosh, look at that, look at that sight, look at that camera angle. Right. And it's truly they they've perfected it.

SPEAKER_00 3:43

Whoever directs the directs the service does an excellent job, really, every every year. So stay tuned with us as we watch this unfold. And again, it's going to start in a few minutes, a little later this year than than normal. Usually we're already underway. But this is also comes at a time where I keep reading headlines, Jonathan, about more and more, especially young people joining the church.

SPEAKER_03 4:03

Yeah, it's you know, I was a little skeptical about the the data at first, you know, there's a big revival, and I I'd like to I would like to look at the trends. And we're seeing that since COVID, and and we can talk about that, but since COVID, we see this massive, I would say, uptick in people converting to Christianity. Right. Uh, we have most of the data comes through the Catholic Church, Orthodox Church, but people young people finding traditional sources of inspiration and for reasons for believing. And uh so, yes, that's a real positive thing, of course, also in the midst of the backdrop of terrible violence and war around the world.

SPEAKER_00 4:39

Sure, sure. And to have this, it seems like almost every year that we we cover this Easter service, there is some sort of a backdrop around the world that people need this sort of hope and the message that we're likely to hear today.

SPEAKER_03 4:52

Yes, it's a hard message sometimes because Pope Leo, f following in the tradition of so many popes before him, will just talk about he won't get into partisan politics, but he will say, No more war, stop the war. And it can sound a little bit simplistic when we're used to judging everything based on whether we think this is a good conflict or a bad conflict, whether it was necessary or not necessary. Pope Leo will not get into that. He'll just say, human beings, remember it's a failure of humanity if we as brothers and sisters are fighting each other. And it's good to hear, especially on Easter Sunday.

SPEAKER_00 5:29

Absolutely. And for us watching this, my favorite part of the service, I don't know if it's part of the service technically, but it's when the Pope gets in the Pope Mobile. So tell us about that, and when we're gonna see that later.

SPEAKER_03 5:42

Yes, we will we will see that most likely. First of all, there will be a procession that'll come outside from St. Peter's Basilica out into the square. Okay. Um and they they build a an altar right there with the backdrop of St. St. Peter's Basilica behind it. After the after the Mass, the the Pope generally gets in the Pope Mobile and will go around the square. I was there not too many months ago with a big group of pilgrims that I brought over to Rome. And if you position yourself well, and it's pretty easy to do if you know what you're doing, the the Pope will come drive right past us, and we were able to yell and scream and say, Pope Leo, we're Americans. And he would stop and and he would he he always uh reacts in a very in a very kind of familiar way.

SPEAKER_00 6:29

Well, it looks like Jonathan, the mass is underway. Let's dip in and listen.

SPEAKER_01 6:36

Some of you may be joining us through the Vatican News app, Vatican News English YouTube channel, or Facebook Live feed. And to all of you joining us through all of our media partners, EWTM TV, Catholic Faith Network in America, Salt and Light TV, Shalom World TV, Adminershan TV, Catholic TV, and all our listeners with Luminous Radio India, Sirius XM Radio in New York City, and Radio Maria, Lithuania, a very special welcome to you all. As well as we see the Swiss guards decked out in their full armor. As today is a very special day, of course, because it is Easter Sunday, where we celebrate Jesus' resurrection from the dead three days after his passion and death on the cross on Good Friday. Now we can see the thousands of flowers and arrangements that line the steps leading up to the platform in St. Peter's Square. And these have come from all around Italy and the Netherlands. And this is part of the Holy Week celebrations where the staff of the Gardens and Environment Service of the Vatican City have organized these arrangements and artistic creations through these donated plants and flowers.

SPEAKER_00 9:15

Jonathan the Mass technically hasn't begun yet. That was kind of the introduction. Some interesting facts though.

SPEAKER_03 9:21

Yeah, this is the Vatican has its own broadcast and radio services, and they connect with people around the world. So there are people watching this right now from every corner of the earth. Keep in mind it's yes, it's 4 a.m. Eastern time here in New York City, but it's 10 o'clock in in Rome and it's 11 o'clock a.m. in the Holy Land. There's people who are really living hard, hard times right now, who are going to get a great deal of hope and inspiration, whether that they are there in uh St. Peter's Square physically or they are watching it from around the world.

SPEAKER_00 9:56

Absolutely, a time to pause. Sometimes we see even the sunrise services as well around the world. And for those tuning in here though, we were pointing out some of the unique, she talked about the flowers, of course, but the uniforms and some of these really ostentatious hats and whatnot, but they're all significant.

SPEAKER_03 10:17

They're all significant. And uh these uniforms were actually designed by Michelangelo himself. Wow. Right? So over 500 years ago, and there's the the tradition of this is the it's the the uh the Swiss guard, right? And they have been protecting the Pope. Yes, it looks it looks like very colorful and perhaps almost like a costume, but these guys are truly protecting the life of the Pope, together with other security services of the city of Rome and of the Vatican. Um, some of them are are undercover, but these guys are definitely not undercover.

SPEAKER_00 10:53

No, they they stand out, they just add to the visual, right? The beauty of the ceremony that is very much well rehearsed.

SPEAKER_03 10:59

Yes, you'll notice that the those that are up there close to the altar, you see the altar is covered with that belt aquino, and right around that are are priests and cardinals who are many of whom are already seated, and then there's going to be the great procession that will, as we mentioned earlier, coming through St. Peter's Basilica from the inside to the outside. And it's it's an awe-inspiring moment when you come out. I've been in that procession before, and you come out and you see the entire square that is that is surrounded by do you see the the columns on the outside? It's almost like it Bernini designed these, and he said he wanted it to be to look like arms of the church holding in the people of God. And and and that's exactly what it looks like. It's it's it's truly beautiful.

SPEAKER_00 11:46

Especially when they take the the view from the air, you can really tell that I I was looking at it and thought it's a great design. It really does hug them in. But this is a square that I mean, there's at least 10,000 people that could fit into St. Peter's Square.

SPEAKER_03 12:02

So the entire area can hold about 200,000. Oh, yeah. It goes right down what's called the Via de la Conciliazione, which is that that beautiful street that comes right up, and you look right at St. Peter's Square, you can see it all the way from back to the rip from the river Tiber all the way up to St. Peter's Basilica. And we see we see all of these people who come at for different times of the year, right? But it is perfectly designed to be able to hold, like you said, maybe 10,000, 20,000 seated, a hundred thousand standing, and then you go all the way down via de la conchiliazione and you can hold up to up to 200,000 people.

SPEAKER_00 12:40

Wow, and we expect it's a great turnout, great weather. It looks like also there for the ceremony this morning, there. When this does get underway, we will hear the papal blessing which we mentioned. What do you expect to hear from the Pope? His first.

SPEAKER_03 12:55

Yeah, Pope Leo, he will focus, I'm quite certain, on on first of all, the theology of what does the resurrection mean for us? That uh even though there are conflicts around the world, that and ha and there always has been, let's be honest. Whenever human beings use their free will, not for the good, but for the bad, there's conflict. But Pope Leo will say in this case, God is bigger than all of that. And the ultimate proof of that is his resurrection, that he allowed himself to be not only to suffer, but to suffer at the hands of his children. Right. The very can you imagine what what that would mean for a parent, nonetheless, for God Himself to be there all powerful and to be crucified, to be tortured, but then to say, I'm going to do that so that you might know that no matter what you're suffering today, I am bigger than that.

SPEAKER_00 13:47

Amen. That's the message we all need today. Let's listen in. I believe the music is starting. Here it is,