Pope ushers in Holy Week with Palm Sunday

(April 18, 2011) Pope Benedict XVI led Catholics into Holy Week celebrations, telling faithful at a Palm Sunday Mass in St. Peter’s Square in Rome that man will pay the price for his pride if he believes technology can give him the powers of God. Under a brilliant sky, the German Pope presided over a colourful Palm Sunday liturgy where tens of thousands of people waved palm and olive branches to commemorate Jesus' entry into Jerusalem days before he was crucified. The Pope, who turned 84 on Saturday, wove his sermon around the theme of man's relationship with God and how it can sometimes be threatened by technology. "From the beginning men and women have been filled – and this is as true today as ever - with a desire to 'be like God', to attain the heights of God by their own powers," he said. "Mankind has managed to accomplish so many things: we can fly! We can see, hear and speak to one another from the farthest ends of the earth. And yet the force of gravity which draws us down is powerful," he said. While the great advances of technology have improved life for man, the Pope said, they have also increased possibilities for evil, and recent natural disasters were a reminder, if any were needed, that mankind is not all-powerful. If man wanted a relationship with God he had to first "abandon the pride of wanting to become God," said the Pope, celebrating his sixth Easter season as the leader of the world's some 1.2 billion Roman Catholics. With Palm Sunday begins the Holy Week, the final days of the 40-day Lenten period of fasting, prayer, penance and good works, for Christianity’s most solemn feast of Easter, or Jesus’ triumphant resurrection after his passion and death.
Before reciting the midday ‘Angelus’ Marian prayer at the end of the Palm Sunday Mass in St. Peter’s Square, Pope Benedict urged for an end to violence in Colombia, calling for wide participation in a day of prayer for the victims of violence to be held there on Good Friday. “I renew my urgent call to conversion, to repentance and to reconciliation," the Pope appealed, adding, “No more violence in Colombia! May peace reign there!" The Holy Father also greeted youth in several languages inviting them to the World Youth Day in Madrid, Spain in August.
This is what he said in English: Listen
I welcome all the English-speaking pilgrims and visitors here in Rome this Palm Sunday, as the whole Church sings "Hosanna" to the Son of David, commemorating Our Lord’s solemn entry into Jerusalem in the days leading up to his passion and death. In a special way I greet all the young people present and I look forward to celebrating World Youth Day in Madrid this summer with many thousands of others from around the world.