In Easter address, pope laments global violence

An unusual Easter Parade made its way through the streets of Rome and into St. Peter’s Square on Sunday.

Some of the participants wore ropes tied into nooses around their necks. One 21-year-old, Daniele de Luca, carried pieces of a homemade gallows.

To protest the death penalty, and war in general, they chose Easter, the day Christians celebrate the resurrection of Jesus. After all, they said, Jesus was the perfect pacifist who fell victim to a regime-sanctioned execution.

And they had something of an ally on St. Peter’s throne.

Pope Benedict XVI led a regal Easter Mass and then bemoaned the state of a war-torn world -- singling out Iraq for special lamentation. The Vatican is on record opposing the war in Iraq, but Benedict’s comments were notably bleak.

“Nothing positive comes from Iraq,” the pope said, “torn apart by continual slaughter as the civil population flees.”

Benedict also condemned “growing unrest and instability” in Afghanistan and the horrors, destruction and bloodshed in Africa and Asia. “How many wounds, how much suffering there is in the world!” he said.

The pope’s comments came during his traditional “Urbi et Orbi” message -- Latin for “to the city and the world” -- delivered at Easter and Christmas.

“I am thinking of the scourge of hunger, of incurable diseases, of terrorism and kidnapping of people,” the pope continued, “of the thousand faces of violence which some people attempt to justify in the name of religion, of contempt for life, of the violation of human rights and the exploitation of persons.”

Benedict wore shimmering golden vestments and presided over a ceremony, awash in yellow flowers, that filled St. Peter’s Square with an enormous showing of pilgrims.

The death-penalty demonstrators joined the St. Peter’s crowd after marching from Rome’s City Hall. Some said they were disappointed that the pope did not explicitly condemn the practice, the central issue they sought to dramatize, but took heart in his pointed advocacy of nonviolence and human rights.

“This is such a day of God, of rebirth, and we are talking about love and life,” said Ilaria Stivali, 32, who was in a group wearing mock nooses and T-shirts saying “I am against.”

“This is our way to say we want peace, the only way we have to say something to our government,” she added. “The death penalty is not human, and I can’t stand it anymore.”

The Roman Catholic Church has long opposed capital punishment, which has been abolished by Italy and most of Europe. Activists now seek to pressure the government to promote a worldwide moratorium through the United Nations.

“There are still important countries, like the United States and China, that are a problem,” said Massimo Masotti, 33, a financial broker and member of Radicali Roma, a pro-left political association.

“For Christians, this is a good day” to demonstrate, he said. “We don’t agree with all things in the Catholic Church, like the role of women, but on this we are close, this important human rights battle.”

Politicians and government ministers, most from the left and some who rarely see eye to eye with the pope, led Sunday’s demonstration. Rome Mayor Walter Veltroni said he was there because “I cannot accept that a state take revenge with the lives of its citizens.”

The more politically conservative ex-president of Italy, Francesco Cossiga, 78 and in a wheelchair, said he was there because of his Catholic faith: “I believe in God, and no one can interfere with human life.”

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wilkinson@latimes.com