The Pope, meanwhile, called for an end to injustice, hatred and violence around the world and particularly in Tibet, Iraq and Darfur in his twice-yearly "Urbi et Orbi" (to the city and the world) message delivered after Easter Mass.
In his sermon, the Pope decried "the many wounds that continue to disfigure humanity in our own day".
"These are the scourges of humanity, open and festering in every corner of the planet, although they are often ignored and sometimes deliberately concealed; wounds that torture the souls and bodies of countless of our brothers and sisters," said the Pope, who earlier baptised Muslim convert Magdi Allam, one of Italy's most outspoken critics of Islamic extremism.
He went on to call for "an active commitment to justice ... in areas bloodied by conflict and wherever the dignity of the human person continues to be scorned and trampled".
"It is hoped that these are precisely the places where gestures of moderation and forgiveness will increase!," he said, specifically mentioning Darfur, Somalia, the Holy Land, Iraq, Lebanon and Tibet.
For the patriarchs and heads of churches in Jerusalem, Easter was a call to those involved in the West Bank, Gaza, and Israeli society to demonstrate "faith in more positive terms".
The group called on leaders in Palestine and Israel to change the violent means of security and on those elsewhere to join in the effort of ensuring peace.
"You too are responsible with us for restoring in it the joy of the Resurrection so as to lift the burdens of death, hatred, Occupation, Security Walls and the fear of taking the risk of peace," read a statement from Jerusalem church leaders.
"Do whatever you can and please involve your governments too to assume their responsibilities for the peace of this land."
In a radio address Thursday, President Bush spoke of the "gift that took away death's sting", and asked the public to pray for American troops in Iraq and to remember the lives that were sacrificed in working toward freedom in the country.
"These brave individuals have lived out the words of the Gospel: 'Greater love has no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends,'" said Bush in his Easter message. "And our nation's fallen heroes live on in the memory of the nation they helped defend."
The President had previously remarked in a speech for the war's fifth anniversary that the progress in Iraq has been "undeniable" and credited the surge for "a major strategic victory in the broader war on terror".
