In situations where “hatred seemed to have permeated every aspect of life”, modern Christian martyrs showed that love is stronger than death, Pope Leo XIV said at an ecumenical prayer service. Source: CNS.
The prayer service on Sunday, the feast of the Exaltation of the Cross, commemorated 1624 Catholics, Orthodox, Anglicans and Protestants who died for their faith between 2000 and 2025.
During the Holy Year 2000, St John Paul II had led a similar commemoration of Christians killed in the 20th century, mainly by communist and fascist regimes.
Pope Leo was joined by 28 representatives of other Christian churches and communities for the prayer service at Rome’s Basilica of St. Paul Outside the Walls.
Anglican Bishop Anthony Ball, the archbishop of Canterbury’s representative to the Holy See, and Orthodox Archbishop Elia of Helsinki and All Finland, representing the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople, stood on either side of the Pope. Russian Orthodox Metropolitan Anthony of Volokolamsk, chair of the Moscow Patriarchate’s external relations department, also attended.
The Vatican did not release the names of the 1624 new martyrs whose stories were submitted over the past two years by Catholic bishops’ conferences, religious orders and nunciatures from all over the world.
But Pope Leo mentioned some of them in his homily, including Sr Dorothy Stang, a US member of the Sisters of Notre Dame de Namur, who was shot and killed in the Brazilian Amazon in 2005 for defending the land rights of the Indigenous and poor farmers.
“When those who were about to kill her asked her for a weapon, she showed them her Bible and replied, ‘This is my only weapon’,” Pope Leo said.
He also spoke about Chaldean Fr Ragheed Ganni from Mosul, Iraq, “who refused to fight in order to bear witness to how a true Christian behaves.” He and three subdeacons were shot and killed in front of their church in 2007.
The Pope also mentioned “Brother Francis Tofi, an Anglican and member of the Melanesian Brotherhood, who gave his life for peace in the Solomon Islands.” Br Tofi and six other members of the religious order were killed by militia members on Guadalcanal in 2003.
Pope Leo prayed, “May the blood of so many witnesses hasten the arrival of the blessed day when we will drink from the same cup of salvation!”
FULL STORY
Modern Christian martyrs show power of love in face of hatred, Pope says (By Cindy Wooden, CNS)
