ROME — Pope Francis has set up a special commission tasked with identifying those he calls the “new martyrs” of the 21st century — Christians who have been slain in some cases simply for attending Mass or for helping the poor.
The Vatican on Wednesday released a copy of a letter in which the pope announced the commission will be part of the Holy See’s saint-making office.
“As I have said so many times, martyrs ‘are more numerous in our time than in the first centuries,’” of the Church, Francis wrote in the letter dated Monday. He was referring to the early years of Christianity, when many were slain for refusing to renounce their faith, seen as a threat to Roman imperial rule.
Modern-time martyrs include clergy as well as “lay people and families, who, in various countries of the world, with the gift of their life, offered the supreme proof of charity,” Francis wrote.
The martyr initiative is timed to coincide with a church jubilee, or Holy Year, scheduled for 2025 that will draw to Rome “pilgrims of hope,” the pontiff noted.
At the pope’s direction, the commission’s members will research cases of non-Catholic Christian martyrs, too.
The commission is tasked with “working up a catalogue of all those who have shed their blood to acknowledge Christ and to give witness to His Gospel,” Francis wrote in his letter. ”The martyrs of the Church are witnesses to the hope that derives from faith in Christ and inspires true charity,” he said.
Francis is building on a drive started by St. John Paul II to give rank-and-file faithful more recent role models among the saints. John Paul raised to sainthood, for example, a Spanish priest who was assassinated in 1936 during the opening days of the Spanish Civil War.
“There are not few, indeed, who, while aware of the dangers they ran, showed their faith or participated in Sunday Eucharist,” Francis wrote. “Others are killed in the efforts to charitably help the life of those who are poor, in taking care…
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