Pope Leo XIV greets the faithful at the conclusion of the Easter Vigil Mass at Saint Peters Basilica in Rome. (Credit Image: © Marek Ladzinski/ZUMA Press Wire)

Vatican City – Pope Leo led the world’s Catholics into Easter at a Saturday night vigil Mass in St. Peter’s Basilica and urged people not to feel numbed by the scope of the conflicts raging across the world but to work for peace.

Leo, who has emerged as an outspoken critic of the Iran war, said that mistrust and fear have been allowed to “sever the bonds between us through war, injustice and the isolation of peoples and nations.”

“Let us not allow ourselves to be paralyzed!” the first U.S. pope exhorted in a service for the holiest night in the Catholic calendar, when the Bible says Jesus rose from the dead.

Leo did not mention any specific conflicts during the service, at which he also baptized 10 adult converts to Catholicism.