For many weeks, journalists have been pressing Leo XIV with questions, hoping he will deliver a soundbite that will spike views or bolster their press reputations, but in the end it was his own calm, premeditated statement calling for peace which spread around the world.
The passion and liturgical drama of Holy Week has come and gone, and there can be no mistaking the change between Good Friday and Easter Sunday at the Vatican. St Peter’s Square was bedecked with flowers from the Netherlands, as is customary, around 70,000 in total this year, in a tradition dating back some 40 years to the beatification of St Titus Brandsma. A hot sun welcomed the crowds gathered in the Square, eagerly waiting for Leo’s first Easter Mass and the Urbi et Orbi which followed.
