Pope Honors Christians Killed by Militants, Mafias, Ranchers

Pope Leo XIV on Sunday honored hundreds of Christians who were killed for their faith in the 21st century, praising their courage and lamenting that their numbers were growing in many parts of the world. Leo presided over a Holy Year evening prayer service in Rome to honor them, inviting Orthodox patriarchs and Christian ministers from over 30 Christian denominations, the AP reports. "Many brothers and sisters, even today, carry the same cross as our Lord on account of their witness to the faith in difficult situations and hostile contexts," the pope said. "Like him, they are persecuted, condemned and killed." Sunday also is Leo's 70th birthday, and the new pope said in a new interview he still faces "a huge learning curve."

• Martyrs initiative: The Vatican has been documenting these Christian martyrs, not as part of its saint-making process but merely to collect and remember their stories. Their numbers include cases of Christians being killed by Islamic militants, mafia groups, and Amazonian ranchers upset at their defense of the rainforest and poor.
• "My only weapon": Leo cited several examples, including that of Sister Dorothy Stang, an American nun who spent three decades trying to preserve the Amazon rainforest and defend the rights of poor settlers who confronted powerful ranchers seeking their lands. She was shot to death in 2005 in a hit ordered by ranchers. "When those who were about to kill her asked her for a weapon, she showed them her Bible and replied, 'This is my only weapon,'" Leo said.
• Unabated: Leo lamented that despite the end of the "great dictatorships of the 1900s," when Christians were persecuted in parts of Europe, Christians were still being killed and in some places, in even greater numbers than before. A Vatican study commission created in 2023 has documented more than 1,500 cases of martyrs since 2000, including the 21 Coptic Orthodox workers beheaded by Islamic militants in Libya in 2015. The commission has also documented stories of Christians killed by criminal organizations or imply because their presence and defense of Christian principles was bothersome, said Andrea Riccardi, vice president of the commission.

• The toll: At a briefing last week, Riccardi said the complete list of names wouldn't be released now because of ongoing security concerns in parts of the world. But he provided the breakdown of the martyrs the commission had added onto its list: 643 in sub-Saharan Africa, most killed in Islamic militant attacksl; 357 in Asia and Oceania, including the victims of the Eastern Sunday 2019 suicide bomb attacks on three churches in Colombo, Sri Lanka; 304 in the Americas, including missionaries and activists targeted for defending the Amazon; 277 in the Middle East and North Africa, many of whom were Christians of other, non-Catholic denominations; and 43 in Europe, though Riccardi noted that among those killed elsewhere there were 110 Europeans, mostly missionary priests and nuns.
• Interview: The first American pope expressed discouragement at the widening income gaps between the working class and CEOs, mentioning reports that Elon Musk could become the world's first trillionaire. "If that is the only thing that has value anymore, then we're in big trouble," Leo said. In excerpts from her upcoming biography of the pope by Elise Ann Allen, he conceded that he wasn't wasn't fully prepared for the job, per the AP. "There's still a huge learning curve ahead of me," he said, adding that he had found his footing as pastor, but that the challenge was the role as a world leader. "On that one I had to jump in on the deep end of the pool very quickly," the pope said.