Since the Crucifixion of Christ down to the year 2000, 69 million, 420,000 Christians have been put to death. In the 20th century alone 45 million Christians were killed by communism in its various forms and by Muslim fundamentalism. These are some of the figures given by Antonio Socci, an Italian journalist and writer who has just published a new book "I nuovi peseguitati" - an inquiry into anti-Christian intolerance in the new century of martyrdom.

Forty million Christians were put to death in the last century: were there precise reasons for this massacre?

The 20th century was undoubtedly a century particularly dominated by atheist ideologies, ideologies which viewed Christianity as a "negative" element for the life of people and tried to remove all trace of it from the face of the earth. There were also many other causes, economic, social, political and sociological, for example the phenomenon of de-colonization, and behind each of them blood baths studded the century. However the phenomenon which surprises most is that totally different and opposing ideologies found themselves united for the whole of the 20th century by ruthless bloody violence towards the presence of Christians. While considering the numerous social and political re-constructions, I would not know how to qualify this phenomenon except as an amazing phenomenon of hatred towards Christianity and the Christian faith.

In what spirit did you undertake this research on intolerance towards Christianity in the 20th century?
I am a Catholic, but I tried to write this book first of all as a journalist, and therefore my intention was to report on a phenomenon which is still happening today. It suffices to think that in Sudan the longest war of the century is being fought, but hardly anyone notices, for the world it does not exist: perhaps because the victims are both Christian and black Africans, doubly non-existent. Something that moved me deeply in my research was the discovery of the presence of Christians in many countries. I am convinced that Christians today, even if they are unawares, are experiencing what Jesus lived in Jerusalem: being tortured, jeered, killed, with all human powers against them, while most people remain indifferent. Jesus himself had warned his disciples "I send you out as sheep among wolves"…This is in fact the destiny of Christians and it should not provoke surprise. But what is amazing is that despite this condition of human weakness and helplessness, we see, just like 2000 years ago, a mystery and a power that comes not from the individual Christians, it transcends them: it is the power of the Church as the Mystical Body of Christ.

Do you agree that the Church's voice condemning persecutions is often isolated?
Civil society is sensitive to respect for human rights but it continues to ignore or overlook the persecution of Christians who continue to die for Christ. The Church's voice is often alone in defending the simple "human person" as such, irrespective of race or religion. Indeed at times she appears almost reluctant to denounce the suffering of her own children. It falls to praiseworthy institutions within the Church, such as Fides Service, to make known this reality of persecution which has left a deep impression and continues to do so particularly on non Christians, as I came to see speaking with many people in order to write my book. This is important and leads me to think that perhaps Christians should valorize their presence more, particularly in contexts of persecutions and that the Catholic world itself should give more attention to these situations. (S. L.) Fides Service 18/7/2002.

Memory of martyrs in Youth Day pilgrim bag
Rome (Fides Service) - "Dear friends, to believe in Jesus today, to follow Jesus as Peter, Thomas, and the first Apostles and witnesses did, demands of us, just as it did in the past, that we take a stand for him, almost to the point at times of a new martyrdom: the martyrdom of those who, today as yesterday, are called to go against the tide in order to follow the divine Master, to follow "the Lamb wherever he goes". It is not by chance, dear young people, that I wanted the witnesses to the faith in the twentieth century to be remembered at the Colosseum during this Holy Year." This was said by Pope John Paul II on August 19, at the prayer Vigil for the 15th World Youth Day in Rome, during the Great Jubilee of 2000. The young pilgrims at present in Toronto with the Holy Father to celebrate their faith, will certainly have taken with them the memory of those who died for this faith. People who collect documentation on the new martyrs, as requested insistently by Pope John Paul II, do a great service to the Church. (Fides Service 24/7/2002)