Pope Leo XIV celebrated Easter Mass in St. Peter's Basilica in the Vatican, world agencies and ANSA reported.
On the holiest holiday for Catholics around the world, the pope urged people to work for peace.
Leo XIV, who has established himself as an outspoken critic of the war in Iran, said that distrust and fear had been allowed to tear apart the bonds between people through war, injustice and the isolation of peoples and nations.
“Let us not allow ourselves to be paralyzed!“, the first pope from the United States urged during the service on the holiest night in the Catholic calendar, when, according to the Bible, Jesus Christ rose from the dead.
Leo XIV did not mention specific conflicts during the service. In his homily to thousands of faithful gathered in the church, the pope urged Catholics to follow the example of the saints, who, he said, fought for justice, so that "the Easter gifts of harmony and peace may grow and flourish everywhere."
Last Sunday, Palm Sunday in the Catholic calendar, the pope said that God rejects the prayers of leaders who start wars and whose hands are stained with blood. On Tuesday, he made a direct appeal to Donald Trump to find a "way out" to end the war.
The pope will conclude Easter celebrations today at noon with a mass in St. Peter's Square at the Vatican and will deliver a special blessing and his message "To the City and the World".
During the midnight service, Leo XIV also baptized 10 new Catholics, including one Korean, two Britons, two Portuguese and five Italians.
This is the first midnight Easter Mass for the first pope from the United States since he was elected to the head of the Roman Catholic Church on May 8 last year, the Associated Press recalls.