Bob, the word "Easter" in English (and German, and Dutch) has a pagan origin. But Christian festival called "Easter" in English is called by a name derived from "Passover" in all Romance languages, and in Greek. The Pope would have been speaking in Italian, where "Easter" is "Pasqua", clearly cognate to the Greek "Pascha", which comes straight from the Hebrew pesach.
The "Easter is pagan because the name comes from a pagan goddess" argument is bogus. It falls apart as soon as you realize that Christianity was brought to England and Germany by people who spoke Latin and carried a Bible translated from Greek, and who knew all about the Christian festival of "Pascha" and nothing of the Anglo-Saxon goddess Eostre.
I guess pagans (or Celts) never borrowed Christian traditions for their own fertility rites. I still maintain neither Jesus nor His disciples celebrated or had even heard of Easter.