Pope’s Palm Sunday Mass Begins Holy Week

Pope Benedict XVI began a series of Holy Week ceremonies on Palm Sunday by conducting mass for thousands of faithful Roman Catholics in Vatican City.

Surrounded by bishops, cardinals and priests, the Pope dedicated Palm Sunday Mass to the young and told those gathered in Saint Peter’s Square to search for God in their daily lives, Voice of American reported.

The Pope also addressed the ongoing problems in the world and told attendees to become witnesses of charity armed with pure hearts and innocent hands.

May the great events of Holy Week, in which we see love unfold in its most radical form, inspire you to be courageous ‘witnesses of charity’ for your friends, your communities and our world, he said.

Innocent hands are not used for acts of violence; they are not dirtied by corruption or bribes. And a heart is pure, he added, when it is not stained by lies and hypocrisy.

The Vatican will honor the second anniversary of Pope John Paul II’s death with a special ceremony during Holy Week.