"On this Easter weekend," he said, "let us hold fast to those aspirations we hold in common as brothers and sisters, as members of the same family, "the family of man."

He also embraced a broader, more ecumenical audience. "While we worship in different ways," the president said, "we also remember the shared spirit of humanity that inhabits us all - Jews and Christians, Muslims and Hindus, believers and nonbelievers alike."

He called health "the rock upon which our lives are built." He made no direct reference, however, to the recently enacted health care legislation, which divided Congress and the nation.

Education is valuable, the president said, but "we also know that ultimately, education is about something more, something greater. It is about the ability that lies within each of us to rise above any barrier, no matter how high; to pursue any dream, no matter how big; to fulfill our God-given potential."

The ringing tribute at the start of a Mass attended by tens of thousands in St. Peter's Square marked an unusual departure from the Vatican's Easter rituals, infusing the tradition-steeped religious ceremony with an air of a papal pep rally.

Sodano's praise for Benedict as well as the church's 400,000 priests worldwide cranked up a vigorous campaign by the Holy See to counter what it calls a "vile" smear operation orchestrated by anti-Vatican media aimed at weakening the papacy and its moral authority.

Sodano said the faithful came to "rally close around you, successor to (St.) Peter, bishop of Rome, the unfailing rock of the holy church" amid the joy of Easter.

His speech ignored demands by victims that he shoulder some responsibility for a common practice by bishops in the past of shuffling pedophile priests from parish to parish rather than sullying the church's reputation by defrocking clergy who raped, sodomized or otherwise sexually abused minors.

Germany's top Roman Catholic cleric, Archbishop Robert Zollitsch, urged Catholics in his Easter homily not to break with the church even as they face "the heinous crimes, the dark sides of the church."

Jewish leaders, and even some top Catholic churchmen, were angered after Benedict's personal preacher, in a Good Friday sermon, likened the growing accusations against the pope to the campaign of anti-Semitic violence that culminated in the Holocaust.

"The true cure for death must be different," the Holy Father proposed. "It cannot lead simply to an indefinite prolongation of this current life. It would have to transform our lives from within. It would need to create a new life within us, truly fit for eternity: it would need to transform us in such a way as not to come to an end with death, but only then to begin in fullness."

The Pontiff said that the "new and exciting" of the Christian message is the affirmation that this "cure for death, this true medicine of immortality, does exist." "It has been found," he assured. "It is within our reach. In baptism, this medicine is given to us."

"A new life begins in us," Benedict XVI told the faithful and the newly baptized, "a life that matures in faith and is not extinguished by the death of the old life, but is only then fully revealed."

These Muslim and Jewish leaders had met for the first time only a few days earlier as part of an unusual effort by the New York-based Foundation for Ethnic Understanding (FFEU) to foster ties between two religions with a history of conflict and suspicion on modern times.

In July, the foundation flew more than two dozen of these religious leaders from Europe - where religions rarely communicate with one another - to the United States, where interfaith cooperation has been part of the religious landscape for hundreds of years. The FFEU, which spent $150,000 on the project, was banking on America's interfaith experiment being attractive enough as a model for other cultures.

"It's so good to see my friends on both sides of the religious aisle, if you will," he said. "The real world changers and leaders are in this room. You have influence over the hearts, minds and spiritual direction of most of the people on this earth."

Although the Australian government provided $4 million to help underwrite the 2009 gathering, the main funding for worldwide interfaith efforts still comes from the United States. Foundations that lend money to interfaith initiatives include the Henry Luce Foundation, the Ford Foundation, the Sierra Club, the Open Society Institute's Soros Foundations and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.

One of the most well-known 20th-century interfaith efforts, the San Francisco-based United Religions Initiative (URI), has garnered support from many secular foundations and wealthy patrons since its founding 10 years ago. Its annual budget is $2.6 million, and it boasts 317,000 members in 72 countries who are committed to what it calls "transforming religious conflict into positive social change."

Lee Penn, a Roman Catholic writer and author of the 2004 book "False Dawn: The United Religions Initiative, Globalism, and the Quest for a One-World Religion," said the URI, whether or not it intends to, provides the basis for a coming global religion. "Under President George W. Bush and President Obama, American civil religion is now interfaith," encompassing what Mr. Obama in his inaugural address called a "patchwork heritage" of Christians and Muslims, Jews and Hindus, and nonbelievers, Mr. Penn said. "Officially, Christian America is no more."

"The interfaith movement is growing worldwide and the United Religions Initiative is one of its leading organizations. The URI, in time, aspires to have the visibility and stature of the United Nations. "In short, global governance and interfaith are now normal and accepted ideas for secular and religious leaders worldwide. The new world order is not science fiction; it is being built now. The question is not whether there will be a new world order; it is who will control it and for what ends."