Vatican experts say the two children killed in last month’s shooting at a Minneapolis Catholic church could one day be included on a list they are compiling of “new martyrs and witnesses of the faith”. Source: CNA.
Harper Moyski, 10, and Fletcher Merkel, 8, were killed while attending a school Mass at Annunciation Catholic Church on August 27 – prompting some to ask whether they could be considered martyrs killed “in hatred of the faith”.
“If the diocese or other local ecclesial entities present these figures to us as witnesses of the faith, we will examine them and see if we can include them in the list,” Archbishop Fabio Fabene, president of the Vatican Commission of New Martyrs, said.
The commission, created by Pope Francis in 2023 under the Dicastery for the Causes of Saints, is compiling an archive of the lives of Christian martyrs, both Catholic and non-Catholic, who have been killed in the new millennium.
As Archbishop Fabene and other experts explained on September 8, the commission’s selection criteria are not the same as those used by the Church to formally recognise a martyr through beatification and canonisation.
“They are two totally distinct things,” the archbishop said.
Andrea Riccardi, commission vice president and founder of the Community of Sant’Egidio, said the work of the commission was “to preserve stories and names in the heart of the Church, so that their memory is not lost.” Inclusion on the commission’s list of “new martyrs” does not qualify as a beatification, he said.
Mr Riccardi and experts spoke about the Minneapolis shooting victims in response to a reporter’s question during a news conference to present an ecumenical prayer service to be led by Pope Leo XIV on September 14.
The service, commemorating martyrs and witnesses of the faith of the 21st century, will be held at the Basilica of St. Paul Outside the Walls on the feast of the Exaltation of the Cross — which also happens to be Leo’s 70th birthday.
Delegates from 24 Christian churches and traditions will attend the ecumenical service, which recalls a similar ecumenical liturgy held in the Colosseum during the 2000 Jubilee Year.
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Vatican experts say Minneapolis shooting victims could qualify as ‘new martyrs’ (By Hannah Brockhaus, CNA)
