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Agence France-Presse
VATICAN CITY - Pope Benedict XVI on Sunday celebrated Easter mass before tens of thousands of pilgrims huddled under umbrellas in St Peter's Square on the holiest day of the Christian calendar.
The pope led a procession of cardinals and bishops across the rain-splashed square decked out in springtime flowers to take his place before St Peter's Basilica as Swiss Guards stood at attention.
The 80-year-old leader of the world's 1.1 billion Catholics chose the white and gold vestments and gold miter of Benedict XV, the pope who reigned from 1914 to 1922, for the occasion.
Easter Sunday celebrates the Resurrection of Christ after his crucifixion on Good Friday.
Religious freedom has been a theme of this year's Easter celebrations. At Saturday's Easter vigil, the pope baptized a former Muslim and a critic of Islamic extremism, journalist Magdi Allam.
Good Friday's Way of the Cross procession was marked by meditations penned by outspoken Hong Kong Cardinal Joseph Zen, who referred to the "martyrs" among China's tiny Catholic minority.
Zen is a key figure for Asian Catholics including those in China who are split between the official and clandestine Catholic churches.
After the mass, the pope was to deliver the traditional "urbi et orbi" blessing, an occasion to speak out about conflicts and ills besetting the planet.
He was to read out the message in Italian, and before making the actual blessing the pope was to greet all the people of the world in 63 languages including Esperanto.
The ceremony was broadcast live in 67 countries.
Allam, 55, an editorial writer and deputy publisher of the Corriere della Sera newspaper, wrote a letter to the paper published Sunday in which he branded his former faith as intrinsically violent.
"I had to do this ", Allam wrote. "Beyond ... the phenomenon of extremists and Islamist terrorism at the global level, the root of evil is inherent to a physiologically violent and historically conflictual Islam."
In its relations with Islam and other religions the Vatican has stressed both freedom of religion and the right to convert to another faith.
Benedict seemed tired Saturday, the third day since Easter celebrations began in earnest on Holy Thursday.
In the face of blustery wind and rain Friday night, the pope opted out of carrying a cross symbolizing the crucifixion of Jesus Christ to conclude the traditional Good Friday procession at Rome's Colosseum.
He had planned to take part in the final three of the Fourteen Stations of the Cross commemorating the path Jesus took to his execution in one of Christendom's most solemn observances.