First Easter message of Benedict XVI.

Vatican City -- Pope Benedict XVI followed a full program of Holy Week ceremonies principally at St. Peter's Basilica, but also on Good Friday at the Rome Colosseum.

This year, as in 2005, the Way of the Cross meditations, written this time by Archbishop Angelo Cormastri and approved by the Pope, provided an opportunity to call to mind man's sinfulness and the loss of the sense of sin. As the National Post reported, the Pontiff laid out a vision of the world as a dark and sinful place, its people led astray by the twin devils of pop culture and secular science. "Our affluence is making us less human, our entertainment has become a source of alienation, and our society's incessant, tedious message is an invitation to die of selfishness," the meditations read.

A slick campaign of propaganda is spreading an inane apologia of "evil" that threatens to "eliminate" the traditional family.

Frivolous freedom, mindless transgressions, immorality and selfishness are exalted in our culture "as if they were new heights of sophistication" (April 15, 2006).

On Saturday evening of April 15 at St. Peter's, the Pope presided at a three-hour Easter Vigil Mass attended by 7,000 people, a ceremony replicated in Catholic churches worldwide. Here the tone was of joy and elation. In a darkened church, everyone present carried a candle which they were able to light from the Paschal candle at the altar. During the Vigil, the Pope baptized and confirmed seven catechumens symbolically selected from various countries.

Benedict preached a powerful homily, borrowing "the language of the theory of evolution," and likening the Resurrection to a great "mutation," a "most crucial leap into a totally new dimension," a leap into a completely new order which does concern us, and concerns the whole of history." Therefore it should not be viewed as a mere historical incident, "a miracle from the past." Christ's death "was an act of love ...; it is stronger than death."

The Holy Father placed emphasis on the transforming effect of baptism, recalling the words of St. Paul (Gal. 2:20), "It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me." Like Paul, we will live eternally, "through existential communion with Him who is truth and love and is therefore eternal: God Himself."

The Pope followed up the Vigil by celebrating Easter Mass on Sunday morning, April 16, his 79th birthday. In his message after Mass, he delivered a plea, in the name of the resurrection of Jesus, for world peace, mentioning particularly the troubled areas of Africa, the Middle East and Latin America as well as the international crises linked to nuclear power: He called on the people of the third millennium, "this modern age marked by anxiety and uncertainty," to open their hearts to Jesus and look for hope. "Do not be afraid!"

Some 100,000 people crowded into St. Peter's square for the address and for the traditional Urbi et Orbi blessing. Pope Benedict left Rome in the afternoon for a few days of rest at his summer residence at Castel Gondolfo, breaking off" on Wednesday to return to Rome for the weekly general audience and a commemoration of his first anniversary as Pope!