“Easter, the heart of our faith, is all the more significant for you who celebrate this feast in the very places where our Lord lived, died and rose again,” Pope Francis writes to Catholics of all rites living in the Holy Land.

Does the Holy See think Israel is conducting a genocide in Gaza? Did Pope Francis call on Ukraine to surrender? Gerard O’Connell asks these questions and more in an exclusive interview with Archbishop Paul Gallagher.

“As Christians, we are rooted in the hope of the resurrection, and so we pray for a just and lasting peace in the Holy Land,” the bishops wrote.

In Gaza, “nowhere is safe” and “hunger is everywhere.”

At the noon prayer on Sunday, Pope Francis called for a cease-fire and for “the continuation of negotiations” to bring about the release of hostages taken by Hamas and the delivery of humanitarian aid to Gaza.

“Americans should be against killing Israelis but also against killing Palestinians,” the political activist Mustafa Barghouti said in an interview with Gerard O’Connell.