Rome – Pope Leo XIV respected hundreds of Christians who were killed in the 21st century for faith, praising their courage and lamenting that their numbers are growing in many parts of the world.
The Vatican has been recording these Christian martyrs, not as part of the Christmas process, but simply collecting and remembering their stories. Their numbers include cases of Christians being killed by Islamic militants, mafia groups or Amazon ranchers who are upset about the defense of the rainforest and the poor.
Leo presided over a holy prayer service in memory of them, inviting more than 40 orthodox patriarchs and Christian preachers from Christian denominations. This is part of the Vatican’s ongoing effort to emphasize what it calls indistinguishable “blood universalism” that criticism unites Christians persecuted and killed by faith, regardless of their particular denomination.
“Many brothers and sisters, even today, are the same as our Lord because of their faith witnesses in difficult circumstances and hostile circumstances,” Leo said. “Like him, they are persecuted, condemned and killed.”
The service was held in the cathedral outside the wall outside the Cathedral of St. Paul for 25 years, and was presided over the 2000 Jubilee Memorial in the Colosseum in 2000.
Leo has since cited several examples of Hir Difficulties, including sisters Dorothy Stang, the American nun who spent thirty years trying to preserve the Amazon rainforest and defending the rights of poor settlers facing powerful ranchers seeking land. She was shot dead by a rancher in 2005.
Leo said: “When those who were about to kill her asked her for weapons, she showed them the Bible and replied: ‘This is my only weapon.’
Leo lamented that despite the “great dictatorship of the 1900s,” Christians were persecuted in parts of Europe, and Christians were still killed, in some places, larger than before.
Since 2000, the Vatican Research Council was established in 2023 and has recorded 1,500 cases of martyrs, including 21 Coptic Orthodox workers beheaded by Islamic militants in Libya in 2015. The committee also records stories of Christians killed by criminal organizations or suggests that they are about the existence of Christian principles and that national defense is the committee committee of the committee committee.
Ms Ricardi said in a briefing last week that a full list of names will not be released now due to security concerns around the world. But he provided the martyrs’ collapse, which the committee has added to its list:
– 643 In sub-Saharan Africa, most were killed in Islamic militant attacks.
– 357 attacks on three churches in Colombo, Sri Lanka by victims of suicide bombings in Asia and Oceania, including 2019.
– 304 in the Americas, including missionaries and activists, aims to defend the Amazon.
– 277 in the Middle East and North Africa, many of them are Christians from other non-Catholic denominations.
-43 in Europe, but Ricardi noted that elsewhere there were 110 Europeans, mainly missionaries and nuns.
While the Research Council is part of the Vatican Christmas Office, Ms. Ricardi stressed that its work is completely separate from the process of measurement and enfeoffment, which also takes into account the possible martyrs.
