Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: MONDAY, April 1, 1991 TAG: 9104010020
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A-2 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: VATICAN CITY LENGTH: Medium
In his Easter address to tens of thousands of people packed into St. Peter's Square, the pontiff called on world leaders to solve disputes peacefully.
He also appealed for compassion for the downtrodden peoples of the world, singling out the Palestinians and the Kurds.
The Kurdish rebellion against the government of Saddam Hussein, which broke out after last month's allied victory, is being crushed by Iraqi government troops.
In his Easter message, the pope hailed Albanian Catholics for clinging to their faith during years of oppression and urged them to "take courage anew." Albania's Communist government has recently loosened restrictions against religion, and Albanians voted Sunday in their first multiparty elections since 1944.
In eastern Germany, which has been grappling with high unemployment since toppling its Communist government and merging with West Germany in October, an Easter march for world peace drew only 50 people in the city of Leipzig. Tens of thousands gather weekly in the city to protest rising joblessness.
In Jerusalem, Roman Catholic patriarch Michel Sabah, a Palestinian, urged Israeli leaders to come to terms with the 1.7 million Palestinians in the occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip, who have waged a 40-month-old uprising against Israeli rule.
Sabah noted that the Jewish celebration of Pesach, or Passover, which began Friday, marks the deliverance of the ancient Hebrews from slavery in Egypt.
"The message of Pesach is a message of liberation for all people, for the Israeli people and the Palestinian people as well," Sabah said.
Cuban radio broadcast an Easter service for the first time since Fidel Castro's Communist forces took power 30 years ago, apparently easing official policies of atheism.
It was only the second time a religious service was broadcast on state-run radio, the official Prensa Latina news agency said. The first was last Christmas.
The pope delivered his Easter Mass on the steps of St. Peter's Basilica under a canopy surrounded by flowers. St. Peter's Square held about 30,000 people as Mass began, but as the sun warmed up the chilly morning air, the crowd grew.
It had more than doubled by the time the pope appeared at noon on the basilica's central balcony to deliver his traditional "urbi et orbi" message - Latin for "to the city of Rome and to the world" - and to give Easter greetings in 55 languages.
While not specifically identifying the Persian Gulf War, the pope clearly alluded to it when he spoke of "darkness which . . . recently cast a shadow over the whole human community when a choice was made of aggression and the violation of international law, when it was presumed to solve the tensions between the peoples by war."
But Easter, he said, was "a day of light, strength and hope, which makes the darkness menacing the earth recede."
He prayed for nations aspiring to more freedom and democracy, and decried guerrilla wars in Africa that have intensified the misery of people already threatened by poverty and hunger.
by CNB