War against Christians is being waged on a global scale, involving direct physical violence, harassment, and imprisonment, according to veteran Vatican journalist John Allen. In a new book, The Global War on Christians, he says 100,000 Christians were killed each year throughout the first decade of the 21st century — 11 new martyrs every hour. “I Read more
Posts Tagged ‘martyrs’
China’s modern martyrs: from Mao to now, part 2
Tuesday, September 17th, 2013
The little-known story of the murder of 33 Trappist monks by Chinese Communists in 1947: “The body of Christ which is the Church, like the human body, was first young, but at the end of the world it will have an appearance of decline.” — St. Augustine As I sat with Brother Marcel Zhang, OCSO Read more
Pope will canonise 800 Italian laymen martyrs
Friday, May 3rd, 2013
In his first canonisation ceremony, Pope Francis will raise to the altars an estimated 800 Italian laymen martyrs killed by Ottoman soldiers in the 15th century. Many of the martyrs’ skulls adorn the walls of the sanctuary in the cathedral at Otranto, a small port town at the eastern tip of southern Italy, where the Read more
Modern Solomon Island Martyrs honoured in Rome
Friday, February 8th, 2013
A book about 7 modern Melanesian martyrs and the legacy of reconciliation they left behind in the Pacific islands, by Monica Attias, a member of Rome’s Catholic St Egidio community, was launched last Friday. As part of the Commission on new Christian martyrs, set up by Pope John Paul II, Monica has been studying the ecumenical Read more
Bishop declares 10 murdered Catholics martyrs
Thursday, May 10th, 2012Bishop John Namaza Niyiring of Kano/Jigawa Diocese, Nigeria, has declared that the 10 Catholics who were killed in cold blood by a terrorist group during last Sunday Mass at St. Stephen chaplaincy, Bayero University Kano, are martyrs. “These beloved Catholics who we mourn today were killed inside the church while worshipping God, even though their death Read more