Vatican City, Sep 14, 2025 / 12:38 pm (CNA).
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.
Recalling the “ecumenism of blood” discussed at the Vatican’s recent Synod on Synodality, he said that the witness of Christian martyrs is “more eloquent than any word: unity comes from the Cross of the Lord.”
The pope ended by citing the words of Abish Masih, a Pakistani boy killed in an attack on a Catholic church, who had written in his notebook: “Making the world a better place.” That dream, Pope Leo said, should inspire Christians today “to bear courageous witness to our faith, so that together we may be leaven for a more peaceful and fraternal humanity.”
The service also included prayers from representatives of different Churches for persecuted Christians, the conversion of persecutors, and a united Christian stand for justice, peace, and solidarity with the poor.
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“We all bleed the same blood” or the interplay between pop songs and Synodal Truth?
Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark: Universal
“It doesn’t matter if you’re black or white
Or the God that you choose to pray to
It doesn’t matter about the clothes you wear
Or which creator made you
We all bleed the same blood
We all need the same love
And when we die there’s no heaven above
It’s universal, it’s universal”
Forget the Catholic English Martyrs of England and Wales. Most anglicans use the Bugnini 1970 Novos Ordo anyway…
Not for publication
My previous comment is inappropriate to the text. Please do not publish.
I have. a question. The title refers to this as an ecumenical service, and we do find them occurring frequently. There have been a number of articles recently in Catholic websites regarding relativism and indifferentism. Is it possible that ecumenical services contribute to that? We are all meeting and praying together, so what is the difference which Christian faith we belong to.
I am just asking and wondering what others might think about this.
Many years ago in my youth the Church preached against mixed marriages as a danger to the Catholic partners faith. That is no longer done to any extent.
I recall seeing in the past statistics on the percent of Catholics in a mixed marriage who leave the faith, and it varied depending on whether the husband or wife was the Catholic party. I was not able to locate those numbers today.
From Prison
At midday she will look out from the kitchen
but will not see my burnt back bent to the harvest.
She will do what she is able of my share,
except the loading – Yari will make some time . . .
When night comes, after supper,
she will bathe the children,
amuse them with games,
assure them: “Papa will be back soon.”
Should there arise a sudden storm,
she will huddle them to her in the big room:
tell them stories, sing.
Before she goes to bed,
she will fasten tight the door,
look in on Stefan, and make sure
little Nikola is warm and snugly tucked in.
They will sleep now, and she will make
the house neat for the morning.
Then she will light the lamp beside our bed
and tell the Virgin Mother of her day,
and, between cold sheets,
she will muffle her tears in the pillow . . .
And tomorrow, when my interrogators enter the cell –
the thought-police with their questions of the State –
they will demand of me the truth of my thoughts
and the names of those I know,
and test my patience and my sanity . . .
And I will be mute as a stone.