On the night of April 16, Pope Francis preached the homily at the Easter Vigil Mass in St. Peter’s Basilica (video, booklet). The Pope, however, did not preside at the Mass; Cardinal Giovanni Battista Re, the Dean of the College of Cardinals, was the principal celebrant.

“Many writers have evoked the beauty of starlit nights,” Pope Francis began. “The nights of war, however, are riven by streams of light that portend death. On this night, brothers and sisters, let us allow the women of the Gospel to lead us by the hand, so that, with them, we may glimpse the first rays of the dawn of God’s life rising in the darkness of our world …”