Pope sees 'nothing positive' in Iraq

VATICAN CITY -- An unusual Easter Parade made its way through the streets of Rome and into St. Peter's Square yesterday.

Some of the participants wore noose-shaped ropes around their necks. One 21-year-old, Daniele de Luca, carried pieces of a homemade gallows.

To protest the death penalty specifically and war generally, they chose Easter, the day Christians celebrate the resurrection of Jesus. After all, they said, Jesus was the perfect pacifist who fell victim to a regime-sanctioned execution.

And they had something of an ally on St. Peter's throne.

Pope Benedict XVI led a regal Easter Mass and then bemoaned the state of a war-torn world, singling out Iraq for special lamentation. Although the Vatican is on record opposing the war in Iraq, Benedict's comments were notably bleak.

"Nothing positive comes from Iraq," the pope said, which is "torn apart by continual slaughter as the civil population flees."

He also condemned "growing unrest and instability" in Afghanistan and a litany of horrors, destruction, and bloodshed throughout Africa and Asia.

"How many wounds, how much suffering there is in the world!" he said.

The pope's comments came during his traditional Urbi et Orbi ("to the city and to the world") message delivered at Easter and Christmas.

"I am thinking of the scourge of hunger, of incurable diseases, of terrorism, and kidnapping of people," the pope continued, "of the thousand faces of violence which some people attempt to justify in the name of religion, of contempt for life, of the violation of human rights, and the exploitation of persons."

Benedict wore shimmering golden vestments and presided over a ceremony awash in yellow flowers that filled St. Peter's Square with an enormous showing of pilgrims.

The death-penalty demonstrators joined the St. Peter's crowd after marching from Rome's City Hall.

Some said they were disappointed that the pope did not explicitly condemn the practice, the central issue they hoped to dramatize, but took heart in his pointed advocacy of nonviolence and human rights.

"This is such a day of God, of rebirth, and we are talking about love and life," said Ilaria Stivali, 32, who was in a group wearing mock nooses and T-shirts reading: "I am against."

"This is our way to say we want peace, the only way we have to say something to our government," she added.

The Roman Catholic Church has long opposed capital punishment, which has been abolished by Italy and most of Europe.

The goal now among activists is to pressure the government to promote a worldwide moratorium through the United Nations.

"There are still important countries, like the United States and China, that are a problem," said Massimo Masotti, 33, a member of Radicali Roma, a pro-left political association. "For Christians, this is a good day" to demonstrate, he said. "We don't agree with all things in the Catholic Church, like the role of women, but on this we are close, this important human-rights battle."