The Pope pointed to the Orthodox martyrs of Libya: "They were martyrs, and the Church venerates them as her own martyrs," he said. "With martyrdom there is equality."

Pope Francis said that he wants the Dicastery for the Causes of Saints—which had organised this week's conference on martyrdom—to "gather the memory of those who, even within the other Christian denominations, were able to give up their lives in order not to betray the Lord. And there are many, many of other denominations, who are martyrs."

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The ceremony will take place at the end of the Synod of Bishops on youth and discernment, Cardinal Pietro Parolin says.

The cardinals and bishops who are members of the Congregation for Saints' Causes have voted to recognise a miracle where Blessed Paul healed an unborn baby and helped her reach full term.

The baby's mother, who was told she had a very high risk of miscarrying the baby, had prayed for Blessed Paul's intercession a few days after his beatification by Pope Francis in 2014.

Blessed Paul was pope from 1963 to 1978.

The Congregation for the Causes of Saints has also publicised the martyrdom, miracles and heroic virtues of a number of others.

They include:

• a miracle attributed to the intercession of Blessed Óscar Arnulfo Romero y Galdámez, Archbishop of San Salvador, martyred on 24 March 1980;
• a miracle attributed to the intercession of Blessed Francesco Spinelli, Diocesan priest, founder of the Institute of the Sister Adorers of the Blessed Sacrament, who died on 6 February 1913;
• a miracle attributed to the intercession of Blessed Vincenzo Romani, Diocesan priest, who died on 20 December 1831;
• a miracle attributed to the intercession of Blessed Maria Catherine Kasper, foundress of the Institute of the Poor Handmaids of Jesus Christ who died on 2 February 1898;
• a miracle attributed to the intercession of the Venerable Servant of God María Felicia Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament, Professed Sister of the Order of Discalced Carmelites, who died on 28 April 1959;
• the martyrdom of the Servant of God Anna Kolesárová, Laywoman, killed in hatred of the Faith on 22 November 1944;
• the heroic virtues of the Servant of God Bernard Łubieński, professed priest of the Congregation of the Holy Redeemer, who died on 10 September 1933;
• the heroic virtues of the Servant of God Cecilio Maria Cortinovis, professed religious of the Order of Friars Minor, Capuchin, who died on 10 April 1984;
• the heroic virtues of the Servant of God Giustina Schiapparoli, foundress of the Congregation of the Benedictine Sisters of Divine Providence of Voghera, who died on 30 November 1877;
• the heroic virtues of the Servant of God Maria Schiapparoli, foundress of the Congregation of the Benedictine Sisters of Divine Providence of Voghera, who died on 2 May 1882;
• the heroic virtues of the Servant of God Maria Antonella Bordoni, laywoman of the Third Order of Saint Dominic, foundress of the Lay Fraternity of the Little Daughters of the Mother of God, who died on 16 January 1978;
• the heroic virtues of the Servant of God Alessandra Sabattini, layman, who died on 2 May 1984.

Source

• Vatican News
• The Tablet
• Catholic Herald UK
• Image: EpicPew

As Semeraro explains in his book "Charles de Foucauld. Explorer and Prophet of a Universal Brotherhood" (San Paolo Editions, 2016), De Foucauld is relevant as a figure in today's ecclesial climate: many see the Church's relationship with Islam as problematic if not hostile.

Brother Charles' experience is useful in reconsidering the sense and profound meaning of Christian martyrdom: "In his case, it simply lived in him there was no need to look for the executioner. This is the only way to escape the vicious cycle of revenge and enter the world of the Gospel. A Christian martyr doesn't need an executioner: what counts is the willingness to give one's life completely," the Benedictine explained to Vatican Insider.

This is where the subtle difference lies, separating the experiences of martyrs from those who use them as a pretext for defending an identity or as a trigger for indignation campaigns of a cultural-political nature.

Too often today, martyrdom undergoes a kind of "genetic modification", when the suffering of faithful is exploited for power or business-related reasons. Or when the reaction to this suffering leads simply to "rights being claimed", claims which remain confined within an "Amnesty-style" Church.

"What Charles de Foucauld represents in the history of the Church is a point of no return: his prophesy fell in the Sahara desert like an evangelical grain of sand on 1 December 2016. It opened up new paths well before the Second Vatican Council became aware of it," Semeraro explains. Continue reading

Sources

• Vatican Insider article by Paolo Affatato, Asia Editor in FIDES News Agency and Vatican Insider website.
• Image: CICM Missionaries Philippines

Martyrdom was not new to them or their people. For nearly two thousand years, their Church had prided itself as being the Church of the Martyrs.

If martyrdom was a central feature of the early Church, it had become the hallmark of its identity in Egypt.

Even as early as the third century, a quote attributed to Tertullian declared: "If the martyrs of the whole world were put on one arm of the balance and the martyrs of Egypt on the other, the balance would tilt in favour of the Egyptians."

From the blood of Saint Mark the Evangelist shed in Alexandria in 68 AD, the river continued to flow, each century adding its martyrs.

The names of the persecutors had changed; Romans and Byzantines and Arabs, Emperors and Caliphs and Kings. Each had contributed his share, each had attempted to end their faith, and each in turn had failed.

The horrific murder of twenty Copts and a Ghanaian Christian at the hands of Islamic State militants in Libya in February was followed by swift condemnations from around the world. Most world leaders described the victims the way they identified themselves - as Coptic Christians.

Pope Francis recognised that they had been "killed simply for the fact that they were Christians," and that "their blood confesses Christ."

Their murderers certainly concurred. They had searched the workers' compoundlooking for Copts - "people of the cross" they named them in the video.

Their beheading was in revenge for Kamilia Shehata, the wife of a Coptic priest, who had briefly disappeared in July 2010 before returning to her family.

Soon her cause became a rallying cry for Egyptian Salafis convinced that she had been prevented from converting to Islam and held against her will by the Church. Continue reading

Source & Image:

• ABC Religion & Ethics

In a country where the major media refused to report on the unbridled military violence, Romero refused to be censored.

He refused to be silent — despite getting daily death threats and having his archdiocesan radio station bombed.

Through his homilies, radio broadcasts and reports in the archdiocesan newspaper, every week Romero detailed the tortures, murders and disappearances, making sure that truth would not be the first casualty of war.

The archbishop was not only the most trusted, but frequently the sole source of news about what was happening in the country.

His often hourslong homilies, broadcast every Sunday by the archdiocesan radio station YSAX, were the most popular program in the country, with nearly 75 percent of the rural population and 50 percent of the urban population listening in — along with the U.S. Embassy.

That made the station, which also broadcast information from the homilies later in the week, a recurring target of the military, which jammed its signal and bombed its offices.

Romero's courage in reporting on the atrocities while living inside the war zone stands in sharp contrast not only to the Salvadoran media of his day, but to the U.S. media today — from the self-aggrandizing falsehoods spouted by NBC anchor Brian Williams and FOX News commentator Bill O'Reilly, to the mainstream media's failure to pursue the Bush administration's lies about weapons of mass destruction and their refusal to use the word torture to describe torture. Continue reading

Source & Image

• National Catholic Reporter

Independence movements, environmental campaigns, investigative journalism, humanitarian missions to war zones. They all draw inspiration from sons and daughters who perished in the line of duty.

But this week's killing in Syria of a brave Dutch Jesuit priest, reported by our sister blog Pomegranate, seemed to generate yet another idea about self-sacrifice for a noble purpose.

"He is like a martyr for inter-religious dialogue," said his compatriot and fellow Jesuit, Jan Stuyt, in response to the awful news.

Now at first sight, that's a rather curious concept.

As a religion writer, I have experienced a lot of inter-religious dialogue. Especially in the aftermath of 9/11, every religious figure in the world, from popes and archbishops to grand muftis and rabbis, has been engaged in religious dialogue.

Sometimes they compare theological notes with one another, to see whether they differ and where they agree, and sometimes they discuss some neutral topic, like poverty and the environment.

These are worthy endeavours; they build up robust relationships which come into play when some terrible event, like a terrorist attack, threatens inter-religious peace.

But on the whole, the participants are in no danger of anything worse than jet lag or an overdose of caffeine. Continue reading.

Source: The Economist

Image: onbehalfofall.org

The Most Rev Justin Welby said that there had been more than 80 Christian "martyrs" in the last few days alone.

He was speaking about the bombing of All Saints Anglican church in Peshawar, Pakistan, in which 85 were killed and more than 200 injured.

He said Christians were also being singled out for violence in a string of other countries.

Christian communities which have existed "in many cases since the days of Saint Paul" are now under threat in countries such as Syria and Egypt, news reports quoted Archbishop Welby.

Last month around 100 Christian sites were attacked amid the turmoil in Egypt, with 42 churches burnt to the ground. Ancient Christian communities in Syria have also been singled out for violence.

In an interview on BBC Radio 4, Archbishop Welby said it was the duty of Christians to pray for their killers.

He said that in many cases apparently religious conflicts are actually bound up with other social and historical grievances but that this could not explain several recent attacks on Christian.

"As Christians one of the things is that we pray for justice and particularly the issues around the anger that comes from his kind of killing.

"But we are also called as Jesus did at the cross to pray for those who are doing us harm," the prelate said.

Sources

The Telegraph

Express

Daily Star

Image: Getty/Daily Star