Watch Pope Francis' final public appearance on Easter Sunday
The pontiff, who in his final weeks struggled to speak for long periods, used an aide to deliver a message to a crowd gathered at St. Peter's Square at the Vatican: a condemnation of policies that stir up "contempt for the vulnerable, the marginalized, and the migrants."
He also paid tribute to those celebrating Easter amid war, calling for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza, the release of Israeli hostages, and stressing the need for peace in Ukraine.
In his own voice, Pope Frances said: "Brothers and sisters, Happy Easter!"
"Viva il Papa! [Long live the pope!]," the gathered crowd chanted in response.
Notably absent were any oxygen tubes as Pope Francis rode in his open-air popemobile around the square, a mere three weeks after he was discharged from a five-week hospital stay for life-threatening double pneumonia.
He stopped occasionally to bless babies, despite being under strict doctor's orders to rest and avoid large crowds.
Since his release from the hospital, Pope Francis had been slowly returning to work, making several Sunday appearances in St. Peter's Square — even visiting a prison on Holy Thursday, although he skipped the Good Friday and Holy Saturday services leading up to Easter.
Earlier on Sunday, Pope Francis also met briefly with Vice President JD Vance, a devoted Catholic, who was visiting Rome with his family.
"I know you've not been feeling great, but good to see you in better health," Vance told Francis.
Vance's strict views on border security had clashed with Pope Francis, the world's most vocal champion of migrants.
According to one of Pope Francis' aides, the late pontiff continued working in defiance of doctor's orders because he wanted "to die on the battlefield."
Inside the monarch butterfly migration mystery: flying to Mexico from Canada, the U.S.
Chocolate Easter eggs: Cracking open a candy tradition
Inside the transformation of the Frick Collection

Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles


Hamilton Spectator
25 minutes ago
- Hamilton Spectator
Carney condemns Israel for failing to prevent humanitarian crisis in Gaza
OTTAWA — Prime Minister Mark Carney is condemning Israel for failing to prevent the humanitarian crisis in Gaza, in the latest sign of rising international alarm over the starvation and deaths of civilians in the besieged Palestinian territory. In a statement posted Thursday night on social media, Carney said Israel must stop controlling aid distribution to allow desperately needed supplies into the enclave that Israel first occupied almost sixty years ago. He alleged that the Israeli government has failed 'to prevent the rapidly deteriorating humanitarian disaster' in the territory, where provisions — including some that has been funded by Canada — have been blocked from reaching 'starving civilians' in Gaza. 'Israel's control of aid distribution must be replaced by comprehensive provision of humanitarian assistance led by international organizations,' Carney wrote . 'This denial of humanitarian aid is a violation of international law.' Carney also called for Israel and Hamas — a designated terrorist organization that launched a brutal assault on Israeli civilians in October 2023 that precipitated more than two years of war — to agree to an 'immediate ceasefire.' He repeated demands for Hamas to release remaining hostages taken during that assault, and reiterated Canada's support for a 'two-state solution' to the decades-long conflict that 'guarantees peace and security for Israelis and Palestinians.' Thursday's statement follows similar condemnation of Israel for the humanitarian crisis from other world leaders earlier in the day. French President Emmanuel Macron announced his country will soon officially recognize Palestine as a state, making France the first major Western power to take that step, as he repeated his call for a ceasefire in Gaza. Keir Starmer, the prime minister of the United Kingdom, also voiced alarm over what he called a 'humanitarian catastrophe,' declaring that the 'suffering and starvation unfolding in Gaza is unspeakable.' Starmer said he would meet with European partners to discuss the situation on Friday, and called on Israel to 'change course' and let more aid get into the occupied territory. The Israeli government had denied that it is blocking supplies from entering Gaza, and earlier this week accused the United Nations of failing to move aid that is waiting at the border of the territory. Thursday's condemnation is the latest in a series of statements this week, including a joint call from Canada, 24 other countries and the European Union. That statement declared civilian suffering in Gaza had 'reached new depths' and criticized Israel for its alleged mismanagement of aid into the territory. ' We condemn the drip feeding of aid and the inhumane killing of civilians, including children, seeking to meet their most basic needs of water and food,' the statement said. Israel's foreign ministry rejected the joint statement, saying it was ' disconnected from reality and sends the wrong message to Hamas. ' All statements and all claims should be directed at the only party responsible for the lack of a deal for the release of hostages and a ceasefire: Hamas, which started this war and is prolonging it,' the ministry stated on social media. On Wednesday, the UN human rights office alleged Israeli forces have killed more than 1,000 Palestinians who were trying to get food, including near aid sites, inside Gaza. The UN has also declared that hunger has reached 'new and astonishing levels of desperation' in Gaza, with a top official stating Monday that almost 100,000 women and children there are dealing with acute malnutrition and a third of the population is going without food for several days in a row, the Associated Press reported. In an email to the Star this week, Global Affairs Canada said the government is considering a 'range of options for further action if Israel does not cease its escalation and lift restrictions on humanitarian aid.' The department did not specify which actions Canada might take. The Israel-Hamas war has raged since the October 2023 attack on Israeli civilians that killed more than 1,200 people and including the kidnapping of about 250 hostages. In the nearly two years since, Israel has bombarded Gaza with airstrikes, blockaded the territory and launched ground invasions in an effort to root out and eliminate the territory's Hamas governors. The territory's health minister says more than 59,000 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza during the war, according to the Associated Press. With files from Raisa Patel


CBS News
an hour ago
- CBS News
Trump's envoy blames Hamas as Gaza ceasefire talks stall again, with Palestinian children "starving to death"
President Trump's special envoy Steve Witkoff said Thursday the U.S. was cutting short the latest round of Gaza ceasefire talks and bringing home its negotiating team from Qatar for consultations, after he said Hamas had issued a response that "shows a lack of desire to reach a ceasefire." The talks have been bogged down over conflicting demands on terms to end the 21-month war. Hamas says it will only release all of the hostages still held in Gaza in exchange for a full Israeli withdrawal and an end to the war. Israel says it will not agree to end the war until Hamas frees the hostages, gives up power and disarms — a condition the U.S.- and Israeli-designated terrorist group rejects. "While the mediators have made a great effort, Hamas does not appear to be coordinated or acting in good faith," Trump's envoy Steve Witkoff said in a statement. "We will now consider alternative options to bring the hostages home and try to create a more stable environment for the people of Gaza." It was unclear what "alternative options" the U.S. was considering. The White House had no immediate comment, and the State Department did not immediately respond to messages. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu recalled the Israeli negotiating team to Israel in light of Hamas' response on Thursday morning. In a brief statement, the prime minister's office expressed its appreciation for the efforts of Witkoff and mediators Qatar and Egypt, but gave no further details. In a statement sent to CBS News on Thursday evening, a Hamas official said the group had "always behaved with high responsibility to conclude a comprehensive, viable and practical deal that can grant a permanent ceasefire and put an end to the suffering of our people, and I wonder how can someone consider this as selfishness." The official said he was "really surprised" by the "out of context statement by the U.S. envoy and the overarching attitude that reflects a preprepared, irresponsible and negative response" by the U.S. The official stressed that Hamas was "still involved in the ceasefire talks" and expected the mediators and the international community to "carry their responsibility" to alleviate the dire circumstances in Gaza. Earlier Thursday, an Israeli official had told The Associated Press that Hamas' latest response was "workable." Another official, with knowledge of the ceasefire talks, told the AP Hamas had submitted a "positive response" through Qatari mediators. Israel launched its war in Gaza in response to Hamas' Oct. 7, 2023, terrorist attack, which killed some 1,200 Israelis and saw 251 others taken hostage. Most of the captives have been released or rescued, but Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says 50 remain in Gaza, including 20 still believed to be alive. The war has killed more than 59,000 Palestinians, according to Gaza's Hamas-run Ministry of Health, which doesn't distinguish between militants and civilians, but says more than half of the dead are women and children. As Israel's blockade and military offensive in Gaza grinds on, four major news organizations said Thursday that their journalists in the Palestinian enclave were facing the threat of starvation. The joint statement by The Associated Press, Agence France-Presse, Reuters and the BBC called on Israel to allow journalists in and out of Gaza and to allow adequate food supplies into the territory. The United Nations backed the call by the media organizations for Israel to let adequate food supplies into Gaza and allow journalists to enter and exit freely. U.N. staff in Gaza are hungry, too, deputy spokesman Farhan Haq said Thursday. People are starving "because we're just not getting in," he said, reiterating that obstacles imposed by Israel were inhibiting the delivery of U.N. aid. "If this does not get better soon and more aid goes through all the various checkpoints, people will die," Haq said. "We've been saying this for months, and now we're at the point where, in fact, people are dying." UNICEF, the U.N.'s Children's Fund, said in a statement on Thursday that 798 Palestinian civilians, including children, were killed near aid distribution sites in Gaza between May 27 and July 7 while seeking food. More than 100 people have died in Gaza from malnutrition since the war started, UNICEF said, and 80% were children. The charity said screening in the Palestinian enclave had found 6,000 children in a state of acute malnourishment in June alone, marking a 180% increase since February. "Children in the Gaza Strip are starving to death. Severe malnutrition is spreading among children faster than aid can reach them, and the world is watching it happen," UNICEF Regional Director for the Mideast Edouard Beigbeder said in the group's statement. Israel says it is allowing enough aid into Gaza and it blames U.N. agencies for failing to distribute it. But those agencies say it's nearly impossible to safely deliver aid because of Israeli restrictions and a breakdown of law and order in Gaza, with crowds of thousands swarming around food trucks as soon as they move into the territory. UNICEF said that From May 19 to July 2, an average of 30 U.N. aid trucks entered Gaza per day, compared to the average of 500 trucks per day that were entering before the wary. The charity said current food supplies in Gaza amounted to about 6% of the normal, pre-war levels. In greater numbers than ever, children hollowed up by hunger are overwhelming the Patient's Friends Hospital, the main emergency center for malnourished kids in northern Gaza. Staff at the facility said five young children who died last weekend of malnutrition marked a change: they were the first deaths seen at the center in children who had no preexisting conditions. Symptoms are getting worse, with children too weak to cry or move, said Dr. Rana Soboh, a nutritionist. In past months, most children brought in malnourished improved with treatment, despite supply shortages, but now patients stay longer and don't get better, she said. The lack of basic health care and sanitation is also enabling deadly diseases to spread in Gaza, the charity OXFAM warned on Friday. "Water-borne diseases that are both preventable and readily treatable have increased by almost 150% inside Gaza over the past three months as Israel continues to deliberately block aid," the group said. "Available multi-agency health data shows that the numbers of Palestinians presenting to health facilities with acute watery diarrhea have increased by 150 percent, bloody diarrhea by 302 percent, and acute jaundice cases by 101 percent." OXFAM said the figures were likely "grossly under-reported because most of the two million people trapped by Israel's continuing siege have little access to the few healthcare facilities that have managed to keep operating."


CNN
an hour ago
- CNN
Video shows dire starvation crisis in Gaza
Distressing video shows the dire effects of the starvation crisis gripping Gaza. Humanitarian aid organizations blame Israeli policies for the crisis and urge Israel to end its blockade of the enclave. Israel says Hamas is at fault. CNN's Jeremy Diamond reports.