Easter is the time “to roll away the stone of the tombs in which we often imprison our hope and to look with confidence to the future, for Christ is risen and has changed the direction of history,” Pope Francis said as he celebrated the Easter Vigil Mass.

Alone, without God, humanity is nothing, the papal preacher told Pope Francis and thousands of people gathered for the Liturgy of the Lord’s Passion.

Celebrating the chrism Mass in St. Peter’s Basilica April 6, the pope addressed his homily to about 1,800 concelebrating priests in the basilica on what he called “the birthday of the priesthood,” the institution of the Eucharist that is celebrated on Holy Thursday.

Pope Francis’ conversation with young people was filmed in June 2022 for a documentary titled “The Pope: Answers,” released on the streaming service Disney+ April 5.

During Lent this year, residents of the Domus Sanctae Marthae, where Pope Francis lives, decided to clean out their closets and give away things other people could use. “You can’t imagine how much stuff there was,” the pope said.

Pope Francis has named Dominican Sister Helen Alford, dean of the faculty of social sciences at the Angelicum University in Rome, to be president of the Pontifical Academy of Social Sciences.

A nation’s welfare and social service systems are a reminder that everything is connected, and everyone is interdependent on each other, especially the younger and older generations, Pope Francis said.

The unborn, migrants, the elderly and the disabled are “living icons” of Jesus that call Christians to draw close to those who feel abandoned just as Christ did on the cross, Pope Francis said.

If “liberty, equality and fraternity” are essential for human thriving, as has been generally accepted in the West since the Enlightenment, then the last element needs as much attention as the first two, including in Catholic theology, said leaders of the Pontifical Academy for Life.

The 86-year-old pope, who had been hospitalized since March 29 for treatment of bronchitis, stopped his car and got out to greet well-wishers and reporters waiting outside the hospital.