Witnesses to Christ in the 20th Century
July 30, 2000
Dear Parishioners,
Pope John Paul’s public request for pardon (as well as similar celebrations by U.S. bishops, and Bishop Cummins reconciliation service for victims of sexual abuse by Church representatives) got a lot of press; his call for an end to the death penalty received considerably less and his ecumenical service honoring martyrs and witnesses to Christ in the 20th century went almost unreported.
In early May in the Coliseum in Rome under an icon of the Crucified Christ the Pope with representatives of 17 other Christian Churches presided over a commemoration of “Witnesses of Christ.” A commission set up at the Pope’s request has so far documented a total of 12,962 modern martyrs: 8,670 from Europe, 1,111 from the former Soviet Union, 1,706 from Asia, 746 from Africa, 333 from the Americas and 126 from Oceania.
The “Witnesses to the faith” were grouped and honored in eight categories: “Christians who bore witness to the faith under Soviet totalitarianism” were first. Testimonies were read from a Russian Orthodox Bishop Tiklan who died in 1925 and the artist Olga Jafe imprisoned in gulag 1929-1931.Then came “witnesses to the faith who were victims of Communism in other nations of Europe.” Testimonies were read from the Romanian Greek Bishop John Sacin who died in prison in 1953 and the Albanian priest Fr. Anton Luli who spent 28 years in forced labor camps and died in 1998. “Victims of Nazism and Fascism” came third. A tribute was read to the Lutheran pastor Paul Schneider who died from torture in Buchenwald and from Bishop Ignacz Jez who died in Dachau. “Followers of Christ who gave their lives for the gospel in Asia and Oceania” included Chinese catholic Margarita Chou confined in prison at age 22 from 1958-1979 and Anglican Bishop Philip Strong interned and killed in a concentration camp in Japan 1942 with eight ministers and two lay volunteers. “Witnesses of evangelization in Africa” included 44 seminarians killed in Burundi in 1997 and a young Baptist medical missionary who died in a Nigeria leprosarium in 1938. Among Christians who gave their lives in America were “ zealous pastors like Archbishop Oscar Romero killed at the altar while celebrating the Eucharistic sacrifice.” Romero’s name was the only one mentioned in the prayers and was added at the last moment at the Pope’s request.
The final testimony was from the Trappist prior, Fr. Christian de Cherge of a monastery in Algeria who with his brother Trappists was kidnapped and killed in 1997. In a letter intended to be opened in the event of his assassination, Fr. Christian wrote, “If one day it should happen to me, and it could today, to be a victim, I would like my community, my Church, and my family to know that my life was given to God and to this country. And also you, the friend of the final moment, who would not be aware of what you are doing. Yes, I also say this “thank you” and then “a Dieu” to you, in whom I see the face of God. And may we find each other, happy good thieves in Paradise, if it pleases God the Father of us both. Amen. Insha’ Allah!” Our present century is obviously not without saints. The pope recalled in his homily that while martyrs and other witnesses to the faith have been a constant characteristic of the Church, their number in this twentieth century has been “perhaps even greater than in any previous epoch.”
Your Pastor,
Brian T. Joyce
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