Pope Benedict XVl "nothing positive comes from Iraq"

Pope: 'How much suffering' in the world

In his Easter message on Christianity's most joyous day, B16 decried suffering in the world, and spoke of the "continual slaughter" in Iraq and expressed his worry over unrest and instability in Afghanistan.

B16 told the tens of thousands of the faithful in St. Peters Square -"In the Middle East, besides some signs of hope in the dialogue between Israel and the Palestine Authority, nothing positive comes from Iraq, torn apart by continual slaughter as the civil population flees,"

He also spoke of what he called the "catastrophic, and sad to say, underestimated, humanitarian situation" in Darfur. He noted other hot spots on the African continent including violence and looting in Congo, fighting in Somalia -- which, he said, drove away the prospect of peace -- and the "grievous crisis" in Zimbabwe, marked by crackdowns on dissidents, a disastrous economy and severe corruption.

Benedict read out a litany of troubling current events, saying he was thinking of the "terrorism and kidnapping of people, of the thousand faces of violence which some people attempt to justify in the name of religion, of contempt for life, of the violation of human rights and the exploitation of persons."