Vatican City ? Looking weak and speaking with great effort, Pope John Paul II blessed the flame of a tall candle at the start of a long Easter vigil service Saturday night in a packed St. Peter’s Basilica. The pontiff baptized people from Europe, Africa and Asia in a solemn, chant-filled ceremony.

The pope’s right hand trembled as he poured water from a gold-colored, shell-shaped scooper over the heads of a young man from Italy, a toddler from Togo, two Japanese women in kimonos and three others during baptism.

“Very dear brothers and sons, in this most holy night, in which Jesus Christ our Lord passed from death to life, the Church, spread throughout the Earth, calls her children to hold a vigil of prayer,” John Paul said.

He told the new Catholics they were entering a Church “which is an immense people on a pilgrimage, without limits of race, language or culture.”

John Paul is scheduled to celebrate Easter Mass in late morning today on the steps of the basilica before a crowd expected to number in the tens of thousands. The pontiff has often used his Easter message to reflect on such problems as war, terrorism and poverty.