Papal Mass Marks Start of Easter Week

Pope John Paul II ushered in Easter week with a pageantry-filled Mass on Palm Sunday in St. Peter’s Square in Vatican City before hundreds of thousands of faithful who sang, prayed and waved palm fronds and olive branches. The pope used the occasion to urge young people to renew their commitment to the Roman Catholic Church. Religious faith, he said, can answer “the questions and unrest of every man and every woman, particularly the young.” Palm Sunday recalls Jesus’ triumphal entry into Jerusalem before his arrest and crucifixion when, according to the Bible, devout followers strewed palm branches in his path.