“It’s not easy to proclaim a message of joy and hope today”, Mgr. Aurel Percă, metropolitan archbishop of Bucharest and deputy president of the Bishops’ Conference of Romania, states in his Easter pastoral letter. “It’s not easy to say ‘rejoice’ when around us we see war, betrayal, sin, injustice – the archbishop goes on –. It is not easy to sing ‘Christ is Risen’ for those who have lost their loved ones, for those who live these solemn moments away from their homes, which they have been forced to leave to save their lives”. Mgr. Percă points out that this year Easter is different from the holidays of the past and urges the faithful to think of Ukrainians, forced to live Easter in their country in shacks and bunkers, hungry, scared, in the cold, and of those who took shelter in Romania. “Let’s think of all those who are alone and forsaken, of the old people who live this Easter on their own, away from their children; of the sick and the suffering, laying in old people’s homes and in hospitals, of the war victims in Ukraine. May the miracle of the Resurrection of Christ inspire empathy with others in us”. Then, the archbishop encourages the faithful to ask the Risen Christ for the gift of peace: “let’s ask Him for peace in our hearts, in our families; peace in Ukraine, in Europe, in the world!”. “Despite the unusual time we are living in – he adds –, in faith we can find support and strength to proclaim: ‘Christ is Risen’”.