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Illustration: The Christian martyrs of the 1622 Great Genna Martyrdom; 17th-century Japanese painting
Pope Francis’ address to the conference promoted by the dicastery for the causes of saints
Clementine Hall – Thursday, 14. November 2024
Summary: “I wanted to set up, the Commission for the New Martyrs which, would collect
the memory of those who, among other Christian denominations,
were able to give up their lives so as not to betray the Lord”.
Dear brothers and sisters,
I greet Cardinal Semeraro with the other Superiors of the Dicastery, the officials, the consultors, the postulators, and all of you who have taken part in the Conference on the theme of Martyrdom and the Offering of Life.
It was inspired by the words of Jesus in the Gospel of John: “No one has greater love than this, to lay down one’s life for one’s friends” (Jn 15:13).
And no miracles are needed to canonize a martyr.
Martyrdom is enough; we thus save a little time, and paper, and money [Laughter].
And this giving of one’s life for one’s friends is a word that always gives comfort and hope.
In fact, on the evening of the Last Supper, the Lord spoke of the gift of self that would be completed on the Cross.
Only love can make sense of the Cross: a love so great that it has taken on all sin and forgives it, enters into our suffering and gives us the strength to bear it, enters even into death to overcome it and save us. In the Cross of Christ there is all of God’s love, there is his immense mercy.
To be a saint does not only require human effort or personal commitment to sacrifice and renunciation. First of all, we must allow ourselves to be transformed by the power of God’s love, which is greater than ourselves and makes us capable of loving even beyond what we thought we were capable of.
It is not by chance that the Second Vatican Council, speaking of the universal vocation to holiness, speaks of the “fullness of Christian life” and the “perfection of charity”, capable of promoting “a much more human way of living … in this earthly society” (Dogmatic Constitution Lumen Gentium, 40).
This perspective also illuminates your work for the cause of the saints, a precious service which you offer to the Church, so that the sign of lived holiness, always relevant, may never be lacking.
During the Conference you reflected on two forms of canonized holiness: that of martyrdom and that of the offering of life. Since ancient times, believers in Jesus have held in high esteem those who had personally paid with their own lives for their love of Christ and the Church.
They made their tombs places of worship and prayer. They joined together, on the day of their birth to heaven, to strengthen the bonds of a fraternity which in the Risen Christ transcends the limits of death, however cruel and painful.
1. Martyrdom
In the martyr we find the characteristics of the perfect disciple, who imitated Christ in renouncing himself and taking up his own cross, and, who, transformed by his love, showed to all the saving power of his cross.
I am reminded of the martyrdom of those good Orthodox Libyans: they died saying “Jesus”.
“But father, they were orthodox!”. They were Christians.
They are martyrs, and the Church venerates them as her own martyrs.
On this we must… With martyrdom there is equality.
The same happens in Uganda, with the Anglican martyrs.
They are martyrs! And the Church takes them all as martyrs.
2. Causes of Saints
In the context of the Causes of the Saints, the common sense of the Church has defined three fundamental elements of martyrdom, which always remain valid.
First, the martyr is a Christian who in order not to deny his faith, consciously suffers a violent and premature death.
Even an unbaptized Christian, who is Christian at heart, confesses Jesus Christ at the Baptism of blood.
Secondly, the killing is carried out by a persecutor moved by hatred of faith or some other virtue associated with it;;
And thirdly, the victim adopts an unexpected attitude of charity, patience, meekness, in imitation of Jesus crucified
What differs, from age to age, is not the concept of martyrdom, but the concrete way in which it occurs in a specific historic context,.
Even today, in many parts of the world, there are many martyrs who give their lives for Christ.
In many cases Christianity is persecuted because, driven by faith in God, he defends justice, truth, peace, the dignity of the human person.
For those who study the various cases of martyrdom, this means that, that – as Venerable Pius XII taught, “”moral certainty sometimes results only from a number of indications and proofs which, taken separately, are not worthy of establishing a true certainty” – that harmony of knowledge – “and only when they are taken together do they leave no reasonable doubt in the mind of a man of sound judgement”” (Address to the Roman Rota, 1 October 1942).
In the Bull of Indiction of the next Jubilee I defined that of the martyrs as the most convincing witness of hope.
For this reason, I wanted to set up, within the Dicastery for the Causes of Saints, the Commission for the New Martyrs – Witnesses of the Faith, which, apart from dealing with the causes of martyrdom, would collect the memory of those who, among other Christian denominations, were able to give up their lives so as not to betray the Lord.
And there are many, many of other denominations, who have martyrs.
The experience of the Causes of the Saints at that time and the constant confrontation with the concrete experience of the faithful led me, on 11 July 2017, to sign the Motu Proprio “Maiorem hac dilectionem” (Greater love than this), with which I wished to express the common understanding of the faithful People of God regarding the testimony of holiness of those who, inspired by Christ’s charity, voluntarily offered their lives, accepting a certain and imminent death.
Since it was a question of defining a new way for the causes of beatification and canonization, I stated that there must be a connection between the offering of life and untimely death, that the Servant of God had exercised the Christian virtues at least to an ordinary degree, and that, especially after his death, he was surrounded by the glory and signs of holiness.
What distinguishes the offer of life, in which the figure of the persecutor is absent, is the existence of an external, objectively measurable state in which the disciple of Christ freely places himself and which leads to death.
Even in the extraordinary witness of this kind of holiness, the beauty of the Christian life shines forth, capable of making itself a gift without measure, like Jesus on the Cross.
Dear brothers and sisters, I thank you,
I encourage you to carry out your work for the causes of saints with passion, and with generosity.
I entrust you to the intercession of the Virgin Mary and all the witnesses of Christ, whose names are written in the Book of Life. I bless you with all my heart. I ask you to pray for me. I thank you.
