Bishop Niall Coll’s Easter message calls for hope amid global turmoil

The Bishop of Raphoe, Niall Coll, has urged people to hold onto hope in the face of global conflict and in a time of great uncertainty.

In his first Easter Reflection since his installation as Bishop of Raphoe, Bishop Coll told how the very message of Easter speaks with a “quiet but enduring force”.

The St Johnston native, who was appointed by Pope Leo XIV in late 2025 to lead the See of Raphoe, said it would be easy for people to “feel overwhelmed to the point of paralysis, and to surrender to despair” at this time.

He pointed to “unspeakable human suffering” in places such as the Middle East and Ukraine and noted how our ears are now accustomed to “a chilling new vocabulary” that includes drone warfare, hypersonic missiles and autonomous weapons.

“Yet Easter calls us to resist that temptation,” Bishop Coll said. “To keep hope alive is not naïve; it is an act of faith. 

“It means praying earnestly for peace, encouraging and supporting those - politicians, diplomats and all who wield influence - who strive for justice and reconciliation. It means refusing to let darkness have the final word.

“For hope is at the very heart of the Easter mystery. It is the quiet, persistent light that no darkness can overcome.”

In a reflective address, Bishop Coll said the overreach of power and bitter invective dominates public life and violent rhetoric and devastating wars are leaving scars across the world.

in a further pointer to hope, Bishop Coll quoted the words of Pope Leo XIV: “Christ’s resurrection teaches us that no history is so marked by disappointment or sin that it cannot be visited by hope. No fall is definitive, no night is eternal, no wound is destined to remain open forever. However distant, lost or unworthy we may feel, there is no distance that can extinguish the unfailing power of God’s love.”

Drawing on the Gospels, he noted how the Gospel of John tells how Mary Magdalene mistook the Risen Lord for a gardener and the disciples on the road to Emmaus, according to the Gospel of Luke, mistook Him for a stranger.

“Only later, at table, in the breaking of the bread, were their eyes opened and they recognised him as the Lord,” Bishop Coll said. “In that moment, fear gave way to hope. Their hearts, once heavy with grief and confusion, were set ablaze. Though it was night, they rose at once and returned to Jerusalem to proclaim the astonishing truth: Christ is risen.

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“Their experience speaks powerfully to our own. Beneath the ashes of discouragement and weariness, there often lies a living ember of hope, waiting only to be rekindled. Easter reminds us that even in the darkest moments, grace is quietly at work, drawing life out of what seems lifeless.”