Pope Leo XIV assured this Sunday, September 14, at the Fiesta de la Exaltación de la Cruz, that although the martyrs “were killed in the body, no one can turn off their voice or erase the love they donated.”
This was said when the “commemoration of the martyrs and witnesses of the faith of the 21st century” presided over the basilica of St. Paul Extramuros, in Rome, an ecumenical encounter that also brought together representatives of Orthodox churches, oriental churches, various Christian communities, as well as ecumenical institutions and authorities of dicasteries of the Vatican.
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Citing the encyclical They are oneof San Juan Pablo II, Leo XIV highlighted in his homily that the Christians “we are convinced” that martyrdom “is’ the most authentic communion that exists with Christ, which spills his blood and, in this sacrifice, brings to those who were some time far away.”
“Even today we can say with John Paul II that, where hatred seemed to permeate every aspect of life, these bold servers of the Gospel and martyrs of faith evidently demonstrated that ‘love is stronger than death,” he added, collecting The words of the Polish Pope in the edition of the Ecumenical Meeting in 2000.
“We remind these brothers and sisters of ours with the gaze directed to the crucified. With their cross Jesus has expressed the true face of God, his infinite compassion for humanity; he carried the hate and violence of the world on himself, to share the fate of all those who are humiliated and oppressed,” said the Holy Father.
Similarly, he continued, currently many Christians “because of their testimony of faith in difficult situations and hostile contexts, carry the same cross of the Lord. Like him they are persecuted, convicted, killed.”
“A hope full of immortality”
To the martyrs, he assured, he reaches the bliss of Jesus, that in Chapter 5 of Matthew he says that “happy you, when you are insulted and persecuted, and when you slander them in every way because of me.”
“They are women and men, religious and religious, laity and priests, who pay with life fidelity to the gospel, the commitment to justice, the struggle for religious freedom where it is still transgressed, solidarity with the poorest.”
“According to the criteria of the world, they have been ‘defeated,” said Leo XIV, stressing that the truth is another, because “as the book of wisdom tells us:’ In the eyes of men, they were punished, but their hope was filled with immortality.”
That of the martyrs, he said, “it is a hope full of immortality, because its martyrdom continues to spread the gospel in a world marked by hatred, violence and war.”
“It is a hope full of immortality, because, although they were killed in the body, no one can turn off their voice or erase the love they donated; it is a hope full of immortality, because their testimony remains as a prophecy of the victory of good over evil.”
“Still today the persecution of Christians is not over”
Next, the Pope recalled the testimony of various Christians who gave life in defense of faith. “I think of the evangelical force of sister Dorothy Stang, committed to the ‘landless’ in the Amazon. To whom they were about to kill her and asked for a weapon, she showed them the Bible responding: ‘Here my only weapon’,” he said.
The Sister Dorothyreligious of the Catholic Congregation of the sisters of Our Lady of Namur, born in 1931 in Dayton, Ohio (United States), which, being a missionary in Brazil, defended both the environment in the region and its inhabitants. She was shot dead by two hitmen in the middle of a rural road in the jungle.
The Pope also remembered Fr. Ragheed Ganni, “Mosul Chaldean Priest in Iraq, who gave up fighting to testify how a true Christian behaves” and died at the hands of fans in 2007.
“I think of Brother Francis Tofi, Anglican and a member of the Melanesian Brothers, who gave life for peace in the Solomon Islands,” said the Holy Father, to ensure that “the examples would be many, because unfortunately, despite the end of the great dictatorships of the twentieth century, the persecution of Christians has not ended today, it is more, in some parts of the world it has increased.”
“We can’t, we don’t want to forget”
Leo XIV then stressed that “we cannot, we do not want to forget. We want to remember. We make it sure that, as in the first centuries, also in the third millennium the blood of the martyrs is a seed of new Christians.”
“We want to preserve memory with our brothers and sisters of the other Christian churches and communions,” he said.
“I wish, therefore, to reaffirm the commitment of the Catholic Church to guard the memory of the witnesses of the faith of all Christian traditions. The Commission for the new martyrs, in the Dicasterio for the causes of the saints, fulfills this task, collaborating with the Dicastery for the promotion of the unity of Christians,” he said.
The Pope stressed that the Final Synodality Synod He acknowledges that “blood ecumenism unites the ‘Christians of different traditions that together give their lives for faith in Jesus Christ. The testimony of his martyrdom is more eloquent than any word: unity comes from the cross of the Lord’.”
“That the blood of so many witnesses ahead on the happy day we will drink from the same salvation chalice!” Said the Pope.
At the end of his message, Leo XIV remembered the words that Abish Masih, a Pakistani child “killed in an attack against the Catholic Church,” he wrote in his notebook: “‘Making the world a better place‘,’ Make the world a better place ‘. “
“That this child’s dream drives us to testify our faith with courage, to be together yeast of a peaceful and fraternal humanity,” concluded the Pope.
That the martyrdom “drives to repentance” to the persecutors
Among the requests, pronounced by leaders of the various churches and Christian communities present, he begged God “so that Christian communities, choosing the path of evangelical prophecy know how to defend the rights and life of the poor against any structure of sin.”
It was also reminded “Christians killed in the name of theocratic and totalitarian projects, victims of terrorist acts during Sunday cult or while gathering in prayer”, as well as “those who opposed corruption rejecting the idolatry of money, at the expense of their lives.”
Another prayer was high so that the sacrifice of the martyrs “touches the hearts of the persecutors and drives them to repentance, so that the blood of the innocents is not spilled anymore and the places of worship are no longer profane.”
In addition, it was prayed “so that our ecclesial communities know how to resist together the commercialization of the life and culture of discarding that produces discrimination, loneliness and abandonment for the weak, opposing the Gospel, which makes the last the first.”
Another request was made to “remember those who promoted the unity of the whole human family, challenging the Lord of Division, of the conflict, of the war, until they give life. With them, we remember those who were killed for having promoted the fraternal encounter between religions, opposing the propaganda of hate the wisdom of the gospel. Those will be called children of God”.
More than 1,600 martyrs in the last 25 years
The commission of the new martyrs – witnesses of the faith of the Dicastery for the causes of the saints, created in 2023 by Pope Francis, has recognized that in the last 25 years 1,624 people have been killed due to being Christian.
According to a recently released report, 643 were killed in sub -Saharan Africa, while another 357 were martyred in Asia and Oceania.
304 cases were recognized in America and 277 in the Middle East and the Maghreb. Another 43 martyrdoms were recognized in Europe.
David Ramos
Graduate in Communication Sciences by the Private University of the North in Trujillo, Peru. With more than 12 years of experience in Catholic journalism working in ACI Press, I am based in Mexico since 2018. I have covered the trips of Pope Francis to Ecuador, Paraguay, Mexico, Colombia, Chile, Peru and Panama.