EUROPE/ITALY Martyrology 2003: 36 missionaries killed while spreading the Gospel. Saturday 20 March Fides Dossier in preparation for the 12th Day of Prayer and Fasting in memory of missionary martyrs.

Rome (Fides Service) - According to information collected by Fides, during 2003 the number of church personnel who lost their lives while on mission was 36, including archbishops, priests, religious men and women and lay persons. As always the list refers not only to missionaries ad gentes in the strict sense of the word, but to church personnel in general in mission lands who devoted their lives to spreading the Gospel aware of the risks involved in bearing witness to Christ.
March 24 the anniversary of the assassination of Archbishop Oscar Romero, Archbishop San Salvador in 1980, will be the 12th Day of Prayer and Fasting in Memory of Missionary Martyrs organised by the Missionary Youth Movement within the Pontifical Mission Societies. To mark the occasion Fides is preparing a Dossier on the theme which in Italian will be issued on March 20.
Here are the contents of the Dossier:
Interview with Cardinal Crescenzio Sepe, Prefect of the Congregation for the Evangelisation of Peoples on the significance of martyrdom and the work of missionaries in particular contexts.
Changes in the Martyrology 2003.
Brief biographical notes on martyrs 2003.
Testimony of people who knew the martyrs and worked with them.
Presentation of the theme for the 12th Day of Prayer: “Persecuted but not abandoned” “(2 Cor 4,9) and indications on how to celebrate the Day.
How missionary martyrs are remembered in the world.
(S.L.) (Agenzia Fides 18/3/2004; Righe 19; Parole 211)