The strong admonition of Pope Leo XIV: no one forgets the persecuted Christians and no one will be able to silence their voice. The Commemoration of the martyrs of the faith took place yesterday in Rome.

---

 

Pope Leo XIV raises his voice for those who can no longer speak.

During the Commemoration of the Martyrs of the Faith of the 21st Century held yesterday at the Basilica of St. Paul Outside the Walls, the Pontiff remembered the men and women who paid with their lives for fidelity to the Gospel.

 

Leo XIV: “They will not silence the persecuted Christians”

«They can kill the body», he declared firmly, «but no one will be able to silence their voice nor erase the love they have witnessed».

Truly pertinent words, an appeal not to remain indifferent. «We cannot, we do not want to forget. We want to remember».

Leo XIV evoked names and stories that should disturb consciences: Sister Dorothy Stang, gunned down in Brazil while defending the poor with the Bible in her hand; Father Ragheed Ganni, a Chaldean priest from Mosul, murdered along with his deacons; Francis Tofi, an Anglican pastor killed in the Solomon Islands.

 

The Ecumenism of Blood: Unity from Martyrdom

Not mere chronicles of blood, but seeds of hope, signs of a unity born from martyrdom which the Pope called “ecumenism of blood”.

An expression made famous by Saint John Paul II and later often taken up by Benedict XVI and Pope Francis. It indicates a paradoxical and dramatic truth: persecutors do not care about confessional divisions, they do not ask whether the victim is Catholic, Orthodox or Protestant.

In their eyes only the fact of being Christians matters, and for this reason they are struck without distinction.

In this sense, the blood of the martyrs becomes a common ground that precedes any theological dialogue. It is a communion that does not arise from negotiations or joint declarations, but from shared sacrifice. Christians belonging to different churches die together, united by the same fidelity to Christ.

 

Nigeria and the Physical and Social Persecutions

Meanwhile, while Rome remembered the martyrs, news coming from Nigeria make those words timely.

We refer to the complaint by Bishop Habila Daboh, bishop of Zaria (Nigeria) issued during an event of “Aid to the Church in Need”.

Nigeria is, in fact, at the moment the place in the world where Christians are undergoing a daily martyrdom, but the bishop reveals that persecution does not occur only with weapons.

And despite (or perhaps precisely because of) the fact that «Christians are growing astronomically», as said a few months ago, penalizations against them are occurring with more subtle and insidious means: discrimination in education, access to work, recognition of rights, bans on building churches; forced marriages and kidnappings.

It is a strategy that literally aims to erase the Christian presence from the social fabric, reducing it to silence.

 

Pope Leo XIV’s warning is clear: that silence will never come.