(John Burger/Aid to the Church in Need) — As the Church marked the Second Millennium of Christianity, Pope John Paul II led a global celebration commemorating 2,000 years since the Incarnation. Central to this Jubilee Year was a profound recognition of Christian martyrs across the centuries – those who bore witness to the Faith with their lives.
Among those contributing to that reflection was Robert Royal, president of the Faith & Reason Institute in Washington, D.C., who published a seminal study on 20th century martyrs. His research suggested that more Christians had shed their blood in the 20th century than in the previous 19 centuries combined.
Recalling the impact of that work, Royal said, “I remember after one presentation, a woman stood up and asked, ‘Weren’t you depressed reading about all these martyrs and the terrible tortures they suffered?’ I looked at her and said, ‘That never crossed my mind. I felt like I had never spent so much time with such heroic and profoundly good human beings. They prayed for the very people who were about to execute them. In a world where many of us take faith for granted, their courage is nothing short of inspiring.’”
Now, 25 years later, Royal has released a follow-up volume, The Martyrs of the New Millennium, commissioned by Aid to the Church in Need (ACN), a Catholic charity under the guidance of the Holy Father that has been serving the suffering and persecuted Church and her faithful in over 140 countries since 1947. Royal will present his book at the Catholic Information Center in Washington, D.C., on April 16th, and at the Pontifical University of St. Thomas (the Angelicum) in Rome on April 29th.
Read more at Aid to the Church in Need…
