Author: Eric Deabill

VATICAN CITY (CNS) – Martyrdom is primarily an act of love, not heroism, and while it often comes in the midst of persecution, it should motivate Christians to seek peace and reconciliation, Pope Francis said.

Persecution and martyrdom are not a thing of the past, he told people at his weekly general audience April 19. “Today there is persecution of Christians in the world. A lot. There are more martyrs today than there were” in the first centuries of Christianity.

As part of his series of talks about “zeal” for evangelization, Pope Francis spoke about the witness of “the host of martyrs – men and women of every age, language and nation – who have given their life for Christ.”

“The martyrs, in imitation of Christ and with his grace, turn the violence of those who refuse the proclamation (of the Gospel) into a supreme occasion of love, which goes as far as forgiving their persecutors,” the pope said. “This is interesting: martyrs always forgive their persecutors. Stephen, the first martyr, died praying, ‘Lord, forgive them, they don’t know what they are doing.’ Martyrs always pray for their persecutors.”

To illustrate his point about modern martyrdom, Pope Francis drew attention specifically to Yemen, “a land that has for many years been afflicted by a terrible, forgotten war, that has caused many deaths and still causes many people, especially children, to suffer today.”

Out of a population of about 31.6 million people, the Vatican estimates the number of Catholics in Yemen to be about 1,000.

In a situation of war and dire poverty, Pope Francis said, “there have been shining witnesses of faith, such as that of the Missionaries of Charity. They are still present today in Yemen, where they offer assistance to elderly who are sick and to people with disabilities. They welcome everyone, of any religion, because charity and fraternity have no boundaries.”

The sisters’ witness of love to others has cost them dearly though. The pope reminded the crowd in St. Peter’s Square that three of the sisters – Sisters Aletta, Zelia and Michael – were “killed by a fanatic” in July 1998 as they were returning home from Mass.

“More recently, shortly after the beginning of the still ongoing conflict, in March 2016, Sister Anselm, Sister Marguerite, Sister Reginette and Sister Judith were killed together with some laypeople who helped them in their work of charity among the least,” the pope said.

The dozen laypeople included “some Muslim faithful who worked with the religious sisters,” he said.

“It moves us to see how the witness of blood can unite people of different religions,” he continued. “One should never kill in the name of God, because for him we are all brothers and sisters. But together one can give one’s life for others.”

Pope Francis prayed that Christians would “never tire of bearing witness to the Gospel, even in times of tribulation.”

“May all the martyr saints be seeds of peace and reconciliation among peoples for a more humane and fraternal world as we await the full manifestation of the kingdom of heaven when God will be all in all,” the pope said.

The month of April is National Child Abuse Prevention Month. It is a time to recognize the importance of families and communities working together to prevent child abuse and neglect.

The month of April gives us all a chance to recommit ourselves to creating safe environments in our parishes, schools and related institutions.

The Most Rev. Joseph C. Bambera, Bishop of Scranton, will celebrate the Diocese of Scranton’s annual “Healing Mass for Survivors of Abuse” on Thursday, April 20, at 12:10 p.m. at the Cathedral of Saint Peter in Scranton.

For those unable to attend in person, the Mass will be broadcast live on Catholic Television of the Diocese of Scranton. A livestream will also be available on the Diocese of Scranton website, YouTube channel and links available on all Diocesan social media platforms.

Editor Note: The Final Document for the Continental Stage in North America, available in English, Spanish and French, can be viewed and downloaded at usccb.org/synod

(OSV News) – The final document for the North American phase of the 2021-2024 Synod on Synodality was released April 12, capturing a process of dialogue and discernment that two participants described as ‘messy,’ ‘joyful’ and unifying – like the synod itself.

“It’s amazing what comes about when … you invoke the Holy Spirit in the conversation,” Julia McStravog, a theologian and co-coordinator of the North American team for the synod’s continental phase, told OSV News.

“The synodal approach provoked a genuine appreciation and joyfulness on the part of the people of God to be able to engage in conversation, even if they were talking about difficult issues,” team co-coordinator Richard Coll told OSV News. Coll also serves as executive director of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ Department of Justice, Peace and Human Development.

Led by Catholic bishops from Canada and the United States, McStravog, Coll and their fellow team members have now synthesized the results of synod listening sessions throughout the two countries, producing a 36-page fInal document available for download at usccb.org/synod. (According to the USCCB, the Catholic Church in Mexico is participating in the global synod with the Latin American Episcopal Council, or CELAM, given its long partnership with that conference.)

The North American synod team — consisting of eight bishops, three laywomen, two priests, two laymen and two women religious — spent time in prayer, silence and discussion to distill responses for inclusion in the text, which forms a response to the Document for the Continental Stage issued by the Holy See’s General Secretariat for the Synod of Bishops in October 2022.

The final document for the continental stage from North America, along with the contributions of the six other continental assemblies, will form the basis of the “Instrumentum Laboris,” the global synod’s working document, to be released by the General Secretariat in June.

Bishop Daniel E. Flores of Brownsville, Texas, chairman of the USCCB Committee on Doctrine, who leads the North American team with Canadian Bishop Raymond Poisson of Saint-Jérôme-Mont-Laurier, Quebec, presented the document at the Vatican April 12.

Launched by Pope Francis in October 2021, the multi-year synod of bishops — the theme of which is “communion, participation and mission” — seeks to cultivate an ongoing dynamic of discernment, listening, humility and engagement within the Catholic Church.

The North American report highlighted three key themes: the implications of baptism, communion with Christ and one another, and missionary discipleship as a living out of the baptismal calling.

“Our baptismal dignity is inseparable from our baptismal responsibility, which sends us forth on mission,” the document stated. “Every human person possesses the dignity that comes from being created in the image of God. Through baptism, Christians share in an exalted dignity and vocation to holiness, with no inequality based on race, nationality, social condition, or sex, because we are one in Christ Jesus.”

By virtue of their baptism, participants in the synod’s North American phase expressed “a desire for a greater recognition of, and opportunities for, co-responsibility within the church and her mission,” with greater collaboration “among the laity and the clergy, including bishops,” said the document. It stressed “there can be no true co-responsibility in the church without fully honoring the dignity of women.”

An “authentic acknowledgment and respect for the gifts and talents of young people is another vital aspect of a co-responsible church in North America,” said the document.

Amid “polarization and a strong pull towards fragmentation,” synod participants in North America emphasized the need to “maintain the centrality of Christ,” especially in the Eucharist.

The document candidly acknowledged that a “significant threat to communion within the church is a lack of trust, especially between bishops and the laity, but also between the clergy in general and the lay faithful.”

The clergy sexual abuse crisis in particular has caused “major areas of tension in North America,” as have “the historical wrongs found in the residential (and) boarding schools for Indigenous people, which … included abuse of all kinds,” said the document.

In their introduction to the document, Bishop Flores and Bishop Poisson admitted the need to “(make) efforts to listen more effectively to those from whom we have not heard, including many who have been relegated to the margins of our communities, society and church.” They noted their “absence” in the synodal process was “not easily interpreted but was palpably felt.”

Among those often missing from synodal sessions were priests, with bishops acknowledging their responsibility to address that lack “by example and by conveying the transparency and spiritual/pastoral fruitfulness of synodality.”

Synod participants listed women, young people, immigrants, racial or linguistic minorities, LGBTQ+ persons, people who are divorced and civilly remarried without an annulment, and those with varying degrees of physical or mental abilities as marginalized within the church.

Outreach and inclusion of these groups is ultimately driven at the local level by the faithful actively living out their baptism, McStravog told OSV News.

At the same time, “the bishops really took to heart the call … to reach out to the periphery,” Coll told OSV News, who added that virtual synod sessions enabled broader participation.

Synod participants consistently articulated a longing for better formation in the faith and in Catholic social teaching, the document said.

As the synod process moves into its next phase, Coll and McStravog pointed to the need for humility and openness to God’s will.

“We don’t have all the answers, and none of this is pre-packaged,” said Coll. “You have to trust that the Spirit will be there to guide us despite the messiness — or maybe because of it.”

(OSV News) – At least 52,250 people have been killed over the last 14 years in Nigeria just for being Christian, a new report published April 10 revealed.

The report, titled “Martyred Christians in Nigeria” and published by the International Society for Civil Liberties and Rule of Law (Intersociety), which is headquartered in Eastern Nigeria, says 30,250 of those have been killed since 2015, when President Muhhamadu Buhari came to power. The report blames what it calls Buhari’s radical Islamism for those killings. Approximately 34,000 moderate Muslims were also butchered or hacked to death within the same period.

At this point, 2023 is not looking any better, with the report revealing that 1,041 “defenseless Christians” were slaughtered in the first 100 days — that is from Jan. 1 to April 10. Within the same period, at least 707 Christians were kidnapped.

The report further indicates that under President Buhari, 18,000 Christian Churches and 2,200 Christian schools were incinerated.

The attacks on Christians have also led to significant problems with regard to people being forced to flee from their homes. While more than 50 million Christians, mostly in Northern Nigeria, face “serious jihadist threats for being professed Christians,” no fewer than “14 million have been uprooted and 8 million forced to flee their homes to avoid being hacked to death,” the report says.

About “5 million have been displaced and forced into Internally Displaced Peoples’ (IDP) camps within Nigeria and refugee camps at regional and sub-regional borders.”

The sheer number of Christians and moderate Muslims killed or displaced has sent chills down the spines of many, including Andrew Boyd, spokesman for Release International, which serves the persecuted church in some 30 countries. He described the report’s finding as “a staggering death toll.”

“It is absolutely appalling that so many Christians are being targeted for their faith and killed in Nigeria, while the Nigerian government seems to stand by and let it happen. It is no less appalling that the international community appears content to stay on the sidelines and watch,” he told OSV News.

Meanwhile, Aid to the Church in Need (ACN), in its own report, has given voice to the thousands of Christians persecuted for their faith in Nigeria.

Maryamu Joseph was just 7 years old when Boko Haram, a violent jihadi extremist organization, attacked her Bazza community and forcefully took her and 21 others to the Sambisa Forest, where she spent nine years. She only escaped in July 2022, and she told her story to ACN.

“Nine years of living in bondage! Nine years of torture! Nine years of agony! We suffered so much at the hands of these heartless, ruthless people,” she told ACN. “For nine years, we saw the shedding of the innocent blood of my fellow Christians, killed by people who do not value life. They murdered without remorse, like it’s a normal thing to do. These nine wasted years in the Sambisa Forest cannot be forgotten in a blink of an eye. Words cannot do justice to what I’ve gone through.”

Andrew Boyd said his organization has identified Nigeria as “a country of particular concern.” But the figures of those being killed in the tens of thousands, and the disheartening testimonies of survivors like Maryamu Joseph, “cry out more clearly than we ever could,” Boyd said. He said the statistics were no doubt appalling, but they weren’t surprising.

“Release International has been reporting year in and year out of the targeting of Christians in Nigeria by Islamist militants. Not only do Nigeria’s Christians face slaughter at the hands of Boko Haram and Islamic State, they are being killed daily by well-armed Fulani extremists,” Boyd told OSV News, referring to Fulani pastoralist people who have joined Islamist extremist groups.

He warned that there could be “a mass exodus of Christians from Africa’s most populous country unless the incoming Nigerian president takes urgent steps to protect Christians from the violence of these jihadists.”

He said his organization was working with partners on the ground in Nigeria “to provide support for suffering Christians.” This includes trauma counseling. “So many have lost members of their families and their homes. We are working with trusted partners to bring some comfort and support. We are raising their voices and their concerns around the world. And we will continue to do so,” Boyd stressed.

According to the Open Doors Watch List 2023, released on Jan. 17, Nigeria is one of the most dangerous places “to follow Jesus.” According to the report, Nigeria accounts for 89% of Christians martyred worldwide.