“With this initiative, we do not intend to establish new criteria for the canonical ascertainment of martyrdom, but to continue the initiated survey of those who, to this day, continue to be killed simply because they are Christians.”
From Vatican News:
Pope Francis released a letter on Wednesday, 5 July, in which he announced the establishment of the Dicastery for the Causes of Saints’ “Commission for the New Martyrs – Witnesses of the Faith”, in view of the Jubilee of 2025.
The working group’s objective will be to draw up a catalogue of all Christians who have shed their blood to confess Christ and bear witness to the Gospel.
“Martyrs in the Church,” wrote the Pope, “are witnesses of the hope that comes from faith in Christ and incites to true charity. Hope keeps alive the profound conviction that good is stronger than evil, because God in Christ has conquered sin and death.”
The Commission will continue the search to identify the Witnesses of the Faith in this first quarter of the century and to continue in the future. This work was started during the Jubilee Year of 2000.
“Martyrs,” the Pope continued, “have accompanied the life of the Church in every age and flourish as ‘ripe and excellent fruits of the vineyard of the Lord’ even today… Martyrs are more numerous in our time than in the first centuries: they are bishops, priests, consecrated men and women, lay people and families, who in the different countries of the world, with the gift of their lives, have offered the supreme proof of charity.”
Saint John Paul II had already stated in his Letter Tertio millennio adveniente that everything must be done to ensure that the legacy of the “unknown soldiers of God’s great cause” is not lost.
On 7 May 2000, these very martyrs were remembered during an ecumenical celebration, which saw gathered at the Colosseum, together with the Bishop of Rome, representatives of Churches and ecclesial communities from all over the world.
This is what the Holy Father has repeatedly called ‘ecumenism of blood’.
“In the next Jubilee as well,” the Pope added, “we will be united for a similar celebration. With this initiative, we do not intend to establish new criteria for the canonical ascertainment of martyrdom, but to continue the initiated survey of those who, to this day, continue to be killed simply because they are Christians.”
“It is therefore a matter of continuing”, explained the Pope, “the historical reconnaissance to gather the testimonies of life, up to the shedding of blood, of these sisters and brothers of ours, so that their memory may stand out as a treasure that the Christian community safeguards. The research will concern not only the Catholic Church, but will extend to all Christian denominations.”
