Human Rights Stressed at Easter Mass : All ‘Deserve Respect, Love,’ Pontiff Asserts

Pope John Paul II, celebrating Christianity’s holiest day at an outdoor Easter Mass for about 150,000 people in St. Peter’s Square at the Vatican, appealed for human rights and proclaimed that “love is more powerful than death.”

Standing on the central balcony of St. Peter’s Basilica, the pontiff also wished the world peace and joy in 50 languages, including English, Russian, Chinese, Hebrew, Arabic and his native Polish.

“Grant, O Lord, that people may always respect the transcendent dignity of all their fellow human beings,” John Paul prayed during his traditional Easter message called “Urbi et Orbi” (City and World).

‘Children of God’

“Whether they be poor or hungry, imprisoned, sick, dying, wounded in body or mind, beset by doubt or tempted to despair,” he said, “they always remain children of God, for God’s gift knows no regrets.

“Everyone is offered forgiveness and resurrection. Each one deserves respect and support. Deserves love.”

The message also echoed one of the main themes of his recent trip to Chile, where violence broke out during a papal Mass in Santiago.

After the demonstration, John Paul told Chileans in an impromptu address that love is stronger than violence or hate.

On Sunday, he reminded Christians that “love is more powerful than death” and said that Jesus’ death led to the “reconciliation of sinners with God, the reconciliation of man.”

The Pope’s appeal also included an allusion to the Roman Catholic Church’s ban on abortion. John Paul prayed that “the man of the technological age may not reduce himself to a mere object but may respect, from its very beginning, the unrenounceable dignity that is proper to him.”

Dressed in white and gold vestments and wearing a glittering gold miter, John Paul celebrated Mass in warm sunshine at an altar covered with hundreds of bright yellow chrysanthemums. The entire altar area was transformed into a spring garden by thousands of tulips, daffodils, azaleas and hyacinths.

After Mass, the 66-year-old pontiff climbed a staircase and appeared on the giant church’s central balcony, to shouts of “Viva il Papa!” (Long live the Pope) from the crowd, and delivered his “Urbi et Orbi” message in Italian.

In Jerusalem, church bells pealed throughout the ancient city as thousands of Christians from around the world celebrated the Resurrection in joyous services.

Officials said that about 70,000 visitors came to Jerusalem for the Holy Week, up from 50,000 last year, when fear of terrorism in the Middle East kept many tourists away.

There were no reports of disturbances in Jerusalem, and few police and soldiers were seen in the crowded streets of the walled Old City, the site of most celebrations.

At the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, more than 2,000 pilgrims attended Mass, crowding around a 30-foot-high shrine where Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox Christians believe Jesus was entombed and rose from the dead.

The Roman Catholic patriarch of Jerusalem, Giacomo Giuseppe Beltritti, celebrated Mass in Latin, French and Arabic before the marble tomb. Responding to his chants, the voices of young and old mixed in a melodious chorus of accents. Incense drifted through the air.

Just outside the Old City, Protestants attended outdoor services under cloudy skies at the Garden Tomb, a location pinpointed in the 19th Century and generally accepted by Protestants as the site of the Resurrection.

Services in Soviet Union

Other religious services were held Sunday in nations around the world, including the Soviet Union and China.

Hundreds of thousands of Soviet worshipers ignored harassment from non-believers and security checks by police to pray at Russian Orthodox churches.

In what has become a Soviet tradition, authorities screened out younger worshipers as they poured into midnight services at the main Cathedral of the Epiphany in Moscow.

In Communist countries such as the Soviet Union, authorities often overlook religious devotion by older people but try to prevent its spread to younger people. A special rock concert was broadcast by state television at midnight, when Easter vigil services began.

Soviet television did break with tradition, however, by airing portions of Russian composer Sergei Rachmaninoff’s religious composition of the liturgy, sung by a black-robed chorus. Easter services usually are ignored by state television and most of the media.

Many of those who did not attend services went to cemeteries to care for graves and leave behind offerings of candy, colored eggs and flowers in what has become an Easter tradition for non-believers.

In China, about 2,500 people attended an Easter Mass at the Cathedral of Our Savior in the capital, Beijing. The Chinese Catholic church is not affiliated with the Vatican.

The official New China News Agency said thousands of Catholics packed churches in other cities.