Pope Leo XIV led an ecumenical commemoration of the martyrs and witnesses of faith of the 21st century at Rome’s Basilica of St. Paul Outside the Walls on Sunday, stressing that “even though they have been killed in body, no one can silence their voice or erase the love they have shown.”
The Sept. 14 liturgy brought together Orthodox, Eastern, and Protestant leaders, along with ecumenical organizations and Vatican officials.
“Through his cross, Jesus revealed to us the true face of God, his infinite compassion for humanity,” the pope said. “He took upon himself the hatred and violence of the world, to share the lot of all those who are humiliated and oppressed.”
Pope Leo, speaking on the feast of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross, said that many believers still share in Christ’s cross. “Like him, they are persecuted, condemned and killed,” the pope said, pointing to women and men — religious, lay people, and priests — who have died for their fidelity to the Gospel, their fight for religious freedom, and their solidarity with the poor.
The pope described their witness as “a hope filled with immortality” because it continues to spread the Gospel, cannot be silenced, and stands as a prophecy of the victory of good over evil.
He recalled Sister Dorothy Stang, murdered in Brazil after telling her killers, “This is my only weapon,” as she held up her Bible. He also remembered Father Ragheed Ganni, a Chaldean priest shot in Mosul, and Brother Francis Tofi, an Anglican religious killed in the Solomon Islands. “Unfortunately, despite the end of the great dictatorships of the twentieth century, to this day the persecution of Christians has not ended,” the pope said.
“We cannot and do not want to forget,” he said. “Just as in the first centuries, so too in the third millennium, the blood of the martyrs is the seed of new Christians.”
Pope Leo reaffirmed the Catholic Church’s commitment to keep alive the memory of martyrs from every Christian tradition, noting the collaboration of the Vatican’s Commission of New Martyrs with the Dicastery for Promoting Christian Unity.
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