Cardinal Dominique Joseph Mathieu marks Easter in Rome, assuring Iran’s Latin Catholics of spiritual unity despite exile from Tehran.
Newsroom (07/04/2026 Gaudium Press ) In the solemn embrace of St. Peter’s Basilica, Cardinal Dominique Joseph Mathieu, Archbishop of the Latin Archdiocese of Tehran-Isfahan, joined Pope Leo XIV and fellow prelates this Easter for a liturgy heavy with both hope and sorrow. The Archbishop stood beneath Michelangelo’s great dome not as a pastor among his flock, but as an exile displaced by conflict, seeking to turn distance into communion.
Only weeks earlier, on March 9, Cardinal Mathieu had announced that he fled to Rome with the staff of the Italian embassy to Iran “not without regret and sorrow,” following the outbreak of the Iran war. Now, amid the chants of the Easter Vigil, he found himself praying not just for peace, but for reunion — for the faithful scattered across Iran’s Catholic communities.
After celebrating Easter in Rome, the Cardinal addressed the faithful of his diocese — which encompasses all Latin Rite Catholics in Iran — through a pastoral message published on Easter Monday by the Vatican’s Fides news agency. In it, he spoke of a paradox: how separation born of war can become a bridge of faith.
“I find myself far from you, the flock entrusted to me, separated by the events of war, waiting to be able to find you again,” he wrote. “And yet, on the holy night, I celebrated the Easter Vigil carrying all of you in my heart: far from my flock, but, precisely for this reason, in a mysterious way, close to each one of you.”
Standing “under the sign of the universal Church,” as he described it, Cardinal Mathieu reflected on his visible communion with the Pope and the wider Catholic world. He came to see distance not as abandonment, but as a call to deeper unity in spirit — a truth that resonates for communities separated by conflict, exile, or persecution.
“In the communion of the Saints and in the grace of the Sacraments, above all in the Eucharist, we are truly united, even when we cannot be so visibly,” the Cardinal said, framing the paradox in stark theological light. “What appears to the eyes as distance, in faith, becomes communion.”
From his vantage beneath the Basilica’s vault, he likened the Easter Vigil to a night where darkness yields to illumination — “a night illuminated by the reflected light of Christ, like the moon, which recalls the Virgin Mary.” Just as the moon mirrors the sun, he wrote, Mary reflects her Son’s glory, pointing humanity toward the source of all life.
The Archbishop also drew strength from the Gospel account of the women who found the empty tomb. Their “holy fear,” he said, did not end in despair, but opened the dawn of faith. He reminded his faithful that while Christians await the final resurrection, the renewal of life already begins “in the life of the believer through grace.”
“In the Risen Christ, the new life has already begun, even if it still passes through trial,” Cardinal Mathieu reflected. His words carried the tone of both shepherd and pilgrim — testifying to faith’s endurance when geography and politics conspire to divide.
As Iran’s Catholics await peace and the return of their Archbishop, Cardinal Mathieu offered reassurance that physical estrangement cannot sever the bonds forged in faith.
“In Christ, living and risen, closeness and remoteness are transfigured. Only He remains, who unites us, keeps us, and guides us, until we may once again be gathered as one flock under one Shepherd,” he concluded.
- Raju Hasmukh with files from Vatican News
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