I have established at the Dicastery for the Causes of Saints the ‘Commission of the New Martyrs – Witnesses of the Faith,’ to draw up a Catalogue of all those who have shed their blood to confess Christ and bear witness to His Gospel.” Pope Francis had announced to the world the creation of “Commission of the New Martyrs – Witnesses of the Faith” at the Dicastery for the Causes of Saints.

“Martyrs in the Church are witnesses of the hope that comes from faith in Christ and incites to true charity. Hope keeps alive the deep conviction that good is stronger than evil, because God in Christ has conquered sin and death. The Commission will continue the search, already begun on the occasion of the Great Jubilee of 2000, to identify the Witnesses of the Faith in this first quarter century and then to continue in the future,” the Pontiff explained in the Letter.

“With this initiative we do not intend to establish new criteria for the canonical ascertainment of martyrdom, but to continue the initiated survey of those who, to this day, continue to be killed simply because they are Christians,” specifies Pope Francis, who also announced that in 2025 there will be an ecumenical celebration similar to the one John Paul II called for at the Colosseum in 2000.

“The search will concern not only the Catholic Church, but will extend to all Christian denominations. Even in our time, in which we are witnessing a change of epoch, Christians continue to show, in contexts of great risk, the vitality of Baptism that unites us. Indeed, not a few are those who, while aware of the dangers they face, manifest their faith or participate in the Sunday Eucharist. Others are killed in the effort to succor in charity the lives of the poor, in caring for those discarded by society, in guarding and promoting the gift of peace and the power of forgiveness. Still others are silent victims, as individuals or in groups, of the upheavals of history. To all of them we owe a great debt and we cannot forget them,” the Letter reads.

“The Commission now established must avail itself of the active contribution of the particular Churches in their articulations, of religious institutes and of all other Christian realities, according to criteria that the same Commission will elaborate,” concludes the Letter signed and dated by Francis on July 3.