Father Petri breaks down Pope Leo XIV’s Easter message, warns of ‘indifference’ to violence, war

Father Thomas Petri, OP, a Dominican theologian, reflected on Pope Leo XIV’s call for peace in the Holy Father’s first Easter message to the faithful and warned against showing “indifference” toward violence.

“During his urbi et orbi message [on Easter], he mentioned the globalization of indifference, the indifference that we have, even good Christians and good Catholics have to violence,” Petri told anchor Veronica Dudo in an April 6 interview on “EWTN News Nightly.”

“We’ve been desensitized to it,” he said. “But if Christ has shown us anything, it is that power, the all-powerful God, wins the battle against sin and death not by violence or defeating it in some grand gesture of war against evil. Rather, he abandons himself, he gives himself in service, he dies for it, and then he rises for it without losing an ounce of his dignity, an ounce of his power.”

In his Easter message to the faithful, Leo reflected on the resurrection of Christ, saying Easter is “the victory of life over death, of light over darkness, of love over hatred.”

He said: “The power with which Christ rose is entirely nonviolent” and compared it to “a human heart, which, wounded by an offense, rejects the instinct for revenge and, filled with compassion, prays for the one who has committed the offense.”

Leo called the Resurrection “the beginning of a new humanity” and “the entrance into the true promised land, where justice, freedom, and peace reign, where all recognize one another as brothers and sisters, children of the same Father who is love, life, and light.”

“We are growing accustomed to violence, resigning ourselves to it, and becoming indifferent,” the pope said. “Indifferent to the deaths of thousands of people. Indifferent to the repercussions of hatred and division that conflicts sow. Indifferent to the economic and social consequences they produce, which we all feel.”

Petri said during the interview that the Holy Father “challenged us to live in that sort of same grace, not to be disturbed by the problems of the world, but at the same time not to be indifferent to them, that we can coexist in peace and serenity and at the same time still be troubled and upset and concerned about what we see, not only in our own sinfulness and in our own lives, but in the Church and in the world.”

Pope urges laying weapons down

Petri also discussed Leo’s direct call for peace on Easter, in which the Holy Father said: “Let those who have weapons lay them down” and “let those who have the power to unleash wars choose peace; not a peace imposed by force, but through dialogue!”

In the interview, Petri said: “It might be easy to dismiss” Leo’s call for peace, because “popes always call for peace,” but he warned against downplaying the Holy Father’s role to simply being “a moral figure” and “a great teacher.”

“He is, in fact, we believe, the vicar of Christ on Earth,” Petri said. “And the teachings of the Church, the teachings of Jesus Christ himself, in fact, argue and maintain that peace and nonviolence is ultimately the way to everlasting peace.”

“Only in the grace of Jesus Christ will we find justice, peace, and forgiveness and love all coexisting and living in one reality,” Petri said. “And so this vigil for peace is certainly important and certainly it’s significant that the pope has called for it, but it’s also a real pleading, not simply that people will lay down arms and be peaceful with each other, although it is that, but that God himself will give peace to the world that is so desperately in need of it.”

Leo’s call for peace comes as President Donald Trump said he plans to escalate the conflict in Iran. The president said in a Truth Social post on Easter that April 7 “will be Power Plant Day and Bridge Day” while using profanities to demand Iran open the Strait of Hormuz.

Trump doubled down on April 7, threatening that “a whole civilization will die tonight, never to be brought back again” in a separate Truth Social post.