Information service of the Pontifical Mission Societies since 1927
by Stefano Lodigiani
Vatican City (Agenzia Fides) - From the earliest times, Christian communities buried with due honor those who had borne witness to the faith to the point of giving their lives. Christians very soon began to venerate their martyrs by gathering around the tomb to celebrate the "refrigerium" with joy, with readings and prayers and, later, with the Eucharistic rite. Honoring the martyr meant remembering how he had responded to the Lord's call and considering him a model for one's life.
Since the time of the apostles, according to the Tradition of the Church, the martyr is often identified by Tertullian's expression: "Christus in martyre est". In reference to Christ, martyrdom is a sign of love, not of violence. When Christians follow the path indicated by the martyrs, even in the midst of oppression and violence, they never respond with hatred and revenge, but with love and brotherhood. Finally, the testimony of the martyr is never sterile, as it was for the martyr par excellence, Jesus Christ. With this conviction, the Church continues to walk down the centuries, remembering and pointing out so many men and women who at all latitudes, in all times, did not hesitate to shed their blood for Christ and for his Gospel. For some, their testimony of faith is sealed by the Dicastery for the Causes of Saints, which proposes them as examples to the universal Church; many others remain unknown to the majority, but certainly not to God; others continue to proclaim Christ through their works and the legacy of their commitment passed on to their spiritual children. There are so many lights that, without clamor, continue to illuminate the path of the Church and humanity even in times that seem dark and hopeless.
Fides Agency remembers the occasions and ways in which also in 2023, the year that has just ended, the luminous memory of so many martyrs of recent times has illuminated the path of the Church in the present time, on all continents.
- The martyrdom of three Xaverian missionaries has been recognized by the competent Vatican Dicastery: Luigi Carrara (1933-1964), Giovanni Didonè (1930-1964) and Vittorio Faccin (1934-1964), in addition to the diocesan priest of the then Belgian Congo, Fr. Albert Joubert (1908-1964). All four were killed on November 28, 1964 near the parishes where they worked, in Baraka and Fizi, victims of the violence of the Simba, who in that period were driven by a profound anti-religious hatred.
- On October 5, 2003, lay missionary Annalena Tonelli, who had spent her life in Africa, was killed in the hospital in Borama, Somalia. In 2023, on the occasion of the twentieth anniversary of her death, numerous events, celebrations and conferences, in Italy and Africa, remembered her thoughts and her work. "I chose to be for others, the poor, the suffering, the abandoned, the unloved, when I was a child and that is how I have been and I hope to continue being until the end of my life. I only wanted to follow Jesus Christ. Nothing else interested me so strongly: Him and the poor in Him" is how Annalena, born in Forlì in 1943, described her missionary choice among the poor in Africa, where she had landed in 1969. Twenty years after her death, Annalena is still alive in the heart and in the spirit of many who knew her, as in the health care works she founded in a very poor area of Kenya.
- More than a thousand participants attended the march held every year to remember the Comboni missionary Father Ezequiel Ramin, murdered in Cacoal, in the Brazilian state of Rondònia, on July 24, 1985. For 38 years, the local community, led by the Bishop, on the Sunday close to July 24th, remembers the young missionary who fought for an Amazon free from all forms of exploitation. Today, the Ezechiele Ramin Institute, named after him, produces organic seeds and trains farmers in agriculture without the use of agrotoxics.
- Seven years after the death of Fr. Jacques Hamel, murdered before the altar while celebrating the Eucharist in Saint Etienne, Normandy (France), on July 26, 2016, that small church has become a pilgrimage destination. Many stop to pray and meditate in that place of martyrdom dedicated to the protomartyr Saint Stephen. To respond to this need, a reception center has been planned, with an exhibition that will remember Father Hamel's commitment to interreligious dialogue. Every year numerous initiatives are carried out to keep his memory and his message alive, aimed in particular at young people. The Federation of French Catholic Media has launched a journalism award named after the murdered priest, now in its sixth year, which rewards work that has contributed to peace and dialogue between religions, according to Father Hamel's commitment.
- On 26 April 2023, the Church in Guatemala commemorated the 25th anniversary of the murder of Monsignor Juan José Gerardi Conedera, on the night of April 26 to 27, 1998, two days after having publicly presented the conclusions of the commission that had collected the testimonies of hundreds of victims of the internal armed conflict in Guatemala, with the aim of starting a healing process, supporting communities towards reconciliation.
Monsignor Gerardi Conedera, Bishop of the diocese of Verapaz and later of the diocese of El Quiché, contributed significantly, on behalf of the Church, to the process of peace, justice and reconciliation. "For these reasons - the Bishops exhort - we invite the communities to keep alive the memory of this brave Bishop, witness of love and solidarity. Thanks to his testimony, we all feel motivated to work for a different Guatemala, where the atrocities of the past will never be repeated."
- Every year, the small Cambodian Catholic community remembers those who gave their lives for faith in Christ and are "the seeds and fathers" of today's Cambodian faithful: In this spirit, more than 3,000 Catholics, accompanied by bishops, priests and religious of the Apostolic Vicariate of Phnom-Penh, the Apostolic Prefecture of Battambang and the Apostolic Prefecture of Kompong-Cham, participated in the 2023 Eucharistic celebration in memory of the victims of the civil war, held in Taing Kok, in the province of Kampong Thom, in central Cambodia. The celebration took place in the place where Bishop Joseph Chhmar Salas celebrated the Eucharist until his death in 1976. For Bishop Salas and 34 companions, the Cambodian Church officially opened the diocesan phase of the process of beatification in 2015. They were people murdered or left to die between 1970 and 1977, during the persecution that the Church suffered under the regime of Pol Pot and the Khmer Rouge. The 35 are originally from Cambodia, Vietnam and France and are priests, lay people, catechists, missionaries.
- "The Servants of God Fr. João de Deus Kamtedza and Fr. Silvio Alves Moreira were good shepherds, they suffered with their people and always sought peace and reconciliation. They put their human and spiritual qualities at the service of God and men, living their missionary ideal", Stressed Diamantino Guapo Antunes, IMC, Bishop of Tete (Mozambique), in the homily of the closing Mass of the diocesan phase of the process of beatification of the two Jesuit priests known as the "Martyrs of Chapotera". The ceremony took place on August 12, 2023, at the diocesan sanctuary of Zobuè, in the diocese of Tete, with the participation of hundreds of Catholics from all the parishes of the diocese. The two Jesuits, one Mozambican and the other Portuguese, were murdered on October 30, 1985 near their missionary residence in Chapotera, Lifidzi Mission, Angonia (Mozambique), in the context of the civil war that bloodied the Mozambican people and the Catholic communities in particular.
- The V National Missionary Congress of Nigeria, held in November, had as its motto "Do not be afraid, for I am with you" (Isaiah 41:10), inspired by the difficult situation in the country, where many live in fear. The Bishop of Yola, Stephen Dami Mamza, encouraged everyone to continue spreading and bearing witness to the Gospel despite the complex trials that the country is going through, always remembering that "we must not fear, because the Lord is with us until the end of time". The final resolution reads: "The Congress aimed to remind each Christian of the missionary responsibility of each baptized person, despite the trials that this entails; the theme of the Congress was a clear call to remain firm, even in the midst of persecutions, threats to the life". The great theme of persecution and the blood of martyrs as a fruitful seed of the Church was also addressed. Recognizing that martyrdom, by grace, can generate fruits of life in faith, the start of the canonization processes of people killed because they were Christians and in hatred of the faith was encouraged.
- The human and Christian story of Fr. Franco Ricci, fidei donum priest of the archdiocese of Bari-Bitonto (Italy), killed in Ethiopia on June 19, 1992, was recalled through a theatrical show that was inspired by numerous testimonies of people close to “Abba Franco” in the Soddu Abala mission. He was killed by armed gangs who persecuted the faithful of the mission entrusted to Fr. Ricci, who had openly defended him. The staging, the diocese emphasizes, "is a sign of his perennial testimony".
- On the 30th anniversary of the tragic death of Fr. Pino Puglisi at the hands of the mafia in Palermo (Italy), on September 15, 1993, there have been countless celebrations and events to remember his commitment and revive his work . In his message for the occasion, Pope Francis wanted to "thank the God of all consolation for the gift of the Blessed Martyr Fr. Pino Puglisi", remembering that "following the example of Jesus, Fr. Pino, he gave himself out of love, embracing the Cross to the point of shedding blood". To Fr. Pino Puglisi and to all those who "embraced the Cross to the point of shedding blood" the words of Scripture can be applied: "But the souls of the just are in the hand of God, and no torment shall touch them.
They seemed, in the view of the foolish, to be dead; and their passing away was thought an affliction and their going forth from us, utter destruction. But they are in peace.
For if before men, indeed, they be punished, yet is their hope full of immortality; Chastised a little, they shall be greatly blessed, because God tried them and found them worthy of himself.
As gold in the furnace, he proved them, and as sacrificial offerings he took them to himself.
In the time of their visitation they shall shine, and shall dart about as sparks through stubble". (Wis 3, 1-7). (Agenzia Fides, 5/1/2024)
