THIRD SUNDAY OF EASTER, 7 MAY 2000
ECUMENICAL COMMEMORATION OF WITNESSES TO THE FAITH
IN THE TWENTIETH CENTURY
PREPARATION

I. INTRODUCTORY RITES
"Statio" inside the Colosseum
While the Holy Father, the Representatives of the other Churches and
Ecclesial Communities and the ministers enter the Colosseum for the
"statio", the choir sings:
(Entrance song)
Liturgical Greeting and Doxology
The Holy Father:
The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God the Father and the
fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all.
R/. And also with you.
A Representative of the Greek Orthodox Church:
Blessed be the Kingdom of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, now
and for ever and for all ages. (In Greek)
R/. Amen. Alleluia.
A Representative of the other Churches and Ecclesial Communities:
Worthy are you, our Lord and God, to receive glory and honour and power, for you
created all things, and by your will they existed and were created (Rev 4:11)
R/. Amen. Alleluia.
A Representative of the other Churches and Ecclesial Communities:
Worthy is the Lamb who was slain to receive power and wealth and wisdom and
might and honour and glory and blessing (Rev 5:12)
R/. Amen. Alleluia.
A Representative of the other Churches and Ecclesial Communities:
Worthy are you to take the scroll and to open its seals, for you were slain and
by your blood you ransomed for God men of every tribe and tongue and people and
nation, and you made them a kingdom and priests to our God and they shall reign
on earth (Rev 5:9-10)
R/. Amen. Alleluia
A Representative of the other Churches and Ecclesial Communities:
To him who sits upon the throne and to the Lamb be blessing and honour and glory
and might for ever and ever (Rev 5:13).
R/. Amen. Amen. Alleluia. Alleluia
Procession
The Latin Deacon signals the beginning of the procession towards the outside
of the Colosseum:
Procedamus in pace.
The assembly:
In nomine Christi. Amen.
The choir and the assembly sing:
HYMN TO CHRIST, THE LORD OF THE MILLENNIA
Introduction and Prayer
When the procession reaches the place of the celebration the Holy Father
says:
Introduction
Dear Brothers and Sisters: in this Jubilee year, the joy-filled memorial of
Christ's coming into the world, in the Easter light of his Resurrection, we, as
Christians, join in remembering before God and before the world the witnesses to
the faith in the twentieth century.
We celebrate this memorial here, at the Colosseum, and close to other places
where so many of our brothers and sisters in the first centuries of the Church
made their "noble profession" by the shedding of their blood which
then became the seed of Christians.
The twentieth century too saw the witness of many Christians
who professed their faith amid persecutions, in prison, even to shedding their
blood for their fidelity to Jesus and to his holy Church.
Confirmed in faith and strengthened in hope y the example of so many followers
of the Lamb who was slain, may all Christians be a sign of love and be
recognized in this way as disciples of Jesus Christ.
All pray silently. The Holy Father then says the following...
Prayer
Let us pray.
Almighty and ever-living God, we give you thanks because by your Holy Spirit you
always accompany Christ's followers in the world. May
their faithfulness even to death, their hope in eternal life and their love
for you and for their brothers and sisters inspire us to bear authentic
witness to you in the fullness of communion.
We ask this through Christ our Lord.
R/. Amen.
II. READINGS
First Reading
The faith of the baptized tried by fire
From the first letter of Saint Peter 1:3-9, 13-21
Song between the Readings
The wedding feast of the Lamb
Revelation 19: 1-7
Second Reading
Surrounded by this great cloud of witnesses From the Letter to the
Hebrews 12: 1-6, 18-19a, 22-24
Gospel Acclamation
The choir:
Alleluia, Alleluia, Alleluia
The assembly repeats: Alleluia
The choir: Jn 12:24-25
If the grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone;
but if it dies, it bears much fruit.
The assembly: Alleluia
He who loves his life loses it, and he who hates his life in this world
will keep it for eternal life .
The assembly: Alleluia
Gospel
Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness' sake, for theirs is
the kingdom of heaven
Mt 5: 1-12
The text is proclaimed in a Western and an Eastern language.
At the conclusion of the Gospel, the assembly acclaims the Risen Christ in
the words of the ancient evening hymn Phos hilaron, sung in Greek (or Slavonic).
The Holy Father gives the homily.
III. CONFESSION OF FAITH, TESTIMONIES AND PRAYER
The Sign of Peace
UBI CARITAS
The choir:
R. Ubi caritas est vera, Deus ibi est.
The assembly repeats: Ubi caritas est vera, Deus ibi est.
The Orthodox Deacon (in Greek):
Let us love one another, so that in unity of spirit we may profess our faith in
the Father, in the Son and in the Holy Spirit: the consubstantial and undivided
Trinity.
The Latin Deacon:
Before we join in professing our faith, let us exchange a sign of peace, in the
love of Christ who has gathered us in his name and in the memory of the
witnesses who have given their lives in fearless witness to the faith of the
Apostles.
And all exchange a sign of peace as a sign of fraternal communion.
The choir:
Ubi caritas est vera, Deus ibi est.
Profession of Faith
The Holy Father:
As we give thanks to God for the witnesses to Christ in the
twentieth century, let us proclaim our faith: the faith of the Apostles and
the martyrs, the faith of the undivided Church. For this faith our brothers
and sisters suffered and gave their lives; often they set out for death
professing in their hearts and on their lips their fidelity to the Gospel.
(The profession of the Apostles' Creed follows.)
The cantor:
R/. Credimus, Domine. Amen.
The assembly repeats: Credimus, Domine. Amen.
A Representative of the other Churches and Ecclesial Communities:
We believe in God, the Father Almighty, the maker of heaven and earth.
R/. Credimus, Domine. Amen.
A Representative of the other Churches and Ecclesial Communities:
We believe in Jesus Christ, his only Son, our Lord, who was born of the
Virgin Mary, died and was buried, rose from the dead and is seated at the right
hand of the Father.
R/. Credimus, Domine. Amen.
A Representative of the other Churches and Ecclesial Communities:
We believe in the Holy Spirit, the holy catholic Church, the communion of
saints, the forgiveness of sins, the resurrection of the body and life
everlasting.
R/. Credimus, Domine. Amen.
Testimonies e Commemoration
The Holy Father:
Dear Brothers and Sisters:
We are surrounded by a cloud of witnesses.
In the presence of God and of the glorious Lamb who once was slain,
in the grace of the Holy Spirit,
let us commemorate before the Church and before the world
the witnesses to the faith in the twentieth century:
the countless unknown soldiers
who fought for the great cause of the Gospel.
With gratitude and hope,
with remembrance and heartfelt forgiveness,
let us listen to the accounts of the sufferings and the love
shown by some of our brothers and sisters in faith.
They are men and women of every land and people,
they belong to every Church and Christian community,
they are of all ages and callings.
Let us listen and remember,
that we may never forget
the courageous witness of their faith and love.
1. Christians who bore witness to their faith under Soviet totalitarianism
Testimonies
His Holiness Tichon, Patriarch of the Russian Orthodox Church
His Holiness Tichon was born in 1865, became a monk in 1891 and a bishop in
1897. In November 1917 he was chosen by the local Council to lead the Russian
Orthodox Church. He spent his life defending the faith and the Church during the
period in which the Soviet regime first came to power, enduring attacks,
defamation and pressures of every kind. He died on 7 April 1925. His funeral was
Moscow's last mass display of religion in the 1920s.
In an open letter dated 12 February 1918 and addressed to Nikolaj Troizkij,
priest of the Eparchy of Tomsk, the Patriarch wrote:
"On Russian soil too there have been confessors and martyrs of charity for
their flock . . . In these evil times the Lord has raised up a series of new
martyrs who have had a share in his Passion, bishops and priests ... killed and
tortured by crazed and unhappy children of our country. Yes, let this cup pass
us by. But if the Lord sends us trials of persecution, chains, torture and even
death, with patience we shall endure it all, with faith that this will not
happen to us without God's willing it and that our trials will not be without
fruit, but will be like the sufferings of the Christian martyrs who conquered
the world and brought it to Christ's teaching"
(Source: N. Struve, Les Chrétiens en U.R.S.S.).
**********
Ol'ga Jafa, witness of the Solovki Islands
Ol'ga Jafa, Russian teacher and painter, was born in 1876. She was exiled to
the Solovki Islands from August 1929 to January 1931. At the time of her
liberation she managed to salvage a series of documents concerning the history
of the camp. She died in 1959. The manuscript of her memoirs, preserved in the
city library of Saint Petersburg, is entitled The Island of Good Wishes. There
we read:
"United in their labours, a young Catholic bishop and an Orthodox bishop
worked together. The latter was an old man, emaciated and gaunt, with a gray
beard, ancient of days but strong in spirit, who briskly carried his load . . .
Who among us will some day have the good fortune of returning to the world and
testifying to what we have seen here? And what we have seen is the rebirth of
the pure and authentic faith of the first Christians, the union of the Churches
in the person of the Catholic and Orthodox bishops who together shared in the
same undertaking, a union in love and in humility"
(Source: J. Brodskil, Solovki, p. 152).
Prayer
Remember, most merciful Father, all those who bore witness to their faith in
prisons, concentration camps and gulags. They are an immense and nameless
multitude which no one can count: Metropolitans and Bishops, priests and
deacons, monks and nuns, pastors and laypersons, men and women with unshakable
faith in the Resurrection of Christ. They experienced the Beatitude of the
persecuted and they found strength in your consolation.
Father, remember them all.
R/. Kyrie eleison.
2. Witnesses to the faith who were victims of Communism in other nations of
Europe
Testimonies
Joan Suciu, Romanian Greek Catholic Bishop
Bishop Joan Suciu was born on 3 December 1907. A Romanian Greek Catholic, he
was ordained a priest on 29 November 1931. He was particularly involved in youth
ministry. On 20 July 1940 he was named Auxiliary Bishop of Oradea Mare and then,
in 1946, Apostolic Administrator of the See of Blaj. Bishop Suciu gave a series
of talks in the principal cities of the country, on which occasions he clearly
stated that it was not possible to reconcile Christianity and atheistic
materialism. In 1947 several priests who were among the Bishop's closest
collaborators were arrested. On 24 May 1950 he himself was taken to the prison
of Sighet where he suffered hunger, cold and sickness, together with numerous
tortures. On 27 May 1953 Bishop Joan Suciu died in prison.
In 1948 he had been the originator of a joint letter of the Romanian Greek
Catholic Bishops, in which he affirmed:
"Good Friday has arrived for the Church. It is time, beloved faithful
people, to show whether we are with Christ or whether we are traitors like Judas
. . . Do not be deceived by vain words, by political parties, by promises, by
lies; remain strong, resolute, firm in the faith for which your parents and
forebears shed their blood . . . We have no desire to sell out Jesus or the
Church . . . If they take your churches, pray to the Lord, like the first
Christians did when the pagan emperors destroyed their places of prayer and
burnt the holy books"
(Source: Le Calvaire de la Roumanie Chrétienne, pp. 68-73).
**********
Father Anton Luli, Albanian Jesuit
Father Anton Luli, a Jesuit, was born in Albania in 1910. He was rector of
the Jesuit College and Seminary in Shkodrë. During the Communist regime, he was
imprisoned for seventeen years, followed by eleven years of forced labour, and
he was prevented from exercising his priestly ministry. Released in 1989, he
immediately began to administer the sacraments, despite the fact that religious
freedom had not yet been restored. He died in Rome on 9 March 1998.
At the Special Assembly for Europe of the Synod of Bishops, which began on 28
November 1991, he gave this testimony:
"I learned what freedom is at eighty years of age, when I was able to
celebrate my first Mass with the people. The years spent in prison were truly
terrifying. During my first month, on the night of Christmas, they made me strip
and hung me from the rafters with a rope, so that I could touch the ground only
with the tip of my toes. It was cold. I felt the icy chill moving up my body: it
was as though I were slowly dying. When the freezing cold was about to arrive at
my chest, I groaned desperately. My torturers heard, they kicked me mercilessly
and then took me down. They often tortured me with electricity, putting the two
electrodes in my ears: it was an indescribably horrible experience. That I
remained alive is a miracle of God's grace. I bless the Lord who gave me, his
poor and weak minister, the grace to remain faithful to him in a life lived
almost entirely in chains. Many of my confreres died as martyrs: it was my lot,
however, to remain alive, in order to bear witness".
Prayer
Remember, O God and lover of life, all our brothers and sisters, Orthodox,
Catholic and Protestant, who in many European nations under Communism patiently,
even heroically, endured persecution, imprisonment, torture, abuse and death for
the sake of the Gospel and because of their fidelity to their Church, often
praying for their persecutors. They have experienced the Beatitude of the poor
and they have been found worthy of your Kingdom.
May their memory be blessed, now and for ever.
R/. Kyrie eleison.
Choral Interlude (Easter liturgical chant from the Slavic tradition)
3. Confessors of the faith who were victims of Nazism and Fascism
Testimonies
Father Leonhard Steinwender on Lutheran Pastor Paul Schneider
Paul Schneider, a Lutheran pastor, was born in 1897 and became a member of
the circle of pastors founded by Pastor Martin Niemoller. He was deported to
Buchenwald in 1937 because of his opposition to Nazism. In the concentration
camp he was the object of maltreatment and torture because he refused to pay
homage to Hitler's swastika. In April 1938, he was put in solitary confinement
in the camp's bunker, and it was here he spent the last fourteen months of his
life. From the bunker, however, he did not cease to preach, to denounce crimes
and to offer comfort to his fellow prisoners. He died on 18 July 1939, as a
result of torture and medical experimentation.
From his cell, Pastor Schneider proclaimed the Word of God in the camp, as
Leonhard Steinwender, an Austrian Catholic priest also interned in Buchenwald,
relates:
"In front of the single-storeyed building of the camp there stretched the
immense parade-ground... On feast-days, in the silence of the roll-call,
suddenly from behind the barred dinginess of the camp, there echoed the powerful
voice of Pastor Schneider. He would preach like a prophet, or rather, he would
try to preach. On Easter Sunday, for instance, we heard to our surprise the
powerful words: 'Thus says the Lord: I am the Resurrection and the Life!' The
long lines of prisoners stood at attention, deeply moved by the courage and
energy of that indomitable will... He could never utter more than a few phrases.
Then we would hear raining down on him the blows of guards' truncheons"
(Source: M.D. Schneider, Il predicatore di Buchenwald: Il martirio del
predicatore P. Schneider, Turin, 1996).
***********
Ignacy Jez, Bishop Emeritus of Koszalin-Kolobrzeg.
Bishop Ignacy Jez was one of the many Polish priests interned in
concentration camps. He was ordained a priest on 20 June 1937. In the fifth year
of his priesthood he was brought to the camp at Dachau as No. 37196.
He left the following testimony:
"The concentration camps were death camps. They were rightly called
Vernichtungslager, 'extermination camps', by those familiar with people who
spent time there. To clarify matters, it was said that 'the only road to freedom
for such people leads through the crematorium'.
The title of my recollections of the three years I spent in in the lager at
Dachau was taken from the canticles of the Old Testament: 'Light and darkness,
bless the Lord' (Dn 3,72). To me those years seemed a time of immense darkness.
But alongside the darkness, one could also see the truth of Saint Paul's words
in the Letter to the Romans: 'where sin increased, grace abounded all the more'
(Rm 5,20). The signs of this were quite numerous. Our spiritual strength
increased thanks to the priests who were also also interned, at times too
because of the positive attitude of the lay persons who recited prayers in
common each evening in the dormitories after lights off, and at other times
because of Holy Communion, received from Block 26, despite the fact that it was
officially prohibited by the camp regulations".
Prayer
Remember, God of the darkness of Good Friday, God of the great silence of Holy
Saturday and God also of the joyful dawn of the Resurrection, all those
Christians who were victims of Nazism - Lutheran, Reformed, Catholic and
Orthodox, together with their brothers and sisters of other faiths. They endured
the burden of forced labour, violations of their human dignity, hunger and
thirst, the obliteration of their memory and finally death in the gas chambers
and the ovens. They bore witness to the Beatitude and the power of Gospel
meekness. They did not succumb to the power of darkness; resisting evil, they
proclaimed the power of the God of life.
May the memory of your just ones remain ever alive in you and in us.
R/. Kyrie eleison.
4. Followers of Christ who gave their lives for the proclamation of the
Gospel in Asia and Oceania
Testimonies
Margherita Chou
Margherita Chou, a Chinese Catholic, was arrested at the age of 22 and spent
the years from 1958 to 1979 either in prison or in labour camps. She writes of
her experience:
"In the prison factory we worked eighteen hours a day, seven days a week.
The drums would wake us up at four every morning. Before long, due to extreme
fatigue, I lost my appetite. At night, I just collapsed on my bed without even
washing my face. The routine kept on for one year.
A few days after I arrived at the prison, the officer asked me: "What is
your crime?". I snapped back: "I did not commit any crime. I was
arrested because I was a Catholic and tried to defend my faith". The
officer became very angry and shouted: "If you did not commit any crime,
why are you here?". I was stunned by his extreme anger and shut up. The
whole factory was dead silent. Because of this incident I discovered several
Catholics. We quickly united. Among them was a girl named Tsou who was turned in
by a priest in the government-sponsored Patriotic Association. She was
especially good to me. Unfortunately, after four years, she broke down mentally.
The officer even used her mental condition as a violation of prison regulations.
They tied her up. They hung her up and beat her. They extended her sentence
twice. Although she has now completed her time, she is still in the labor camp
as of this date without proper care".
(Manuscript text in James T. Myers, Nemici senza fucile. La Chiesa cattolica
nella Repubblica popolare cinese, Jaca Book, Milano 1994, pp. 252-263)
**********
Bishop Philip Strong, Anglican Bishop of Papua New Guinea
On 2 September 1942 Philip Strong, the Anglican Bishop of Papua New Guinea,
was interned in a concentration camp together with his co-workers, eight
ministers and two lay people. He refused to leave the country, despite the fact
that the advance of the war had placed the lives of European missionaries at
risk.
Shortly before his arrest he wrote to his clergy:
"We must endeavour to carry on our work. God expects this of us. The church
at home, which sent us out, will surely expect it of us. The universal church
expects it of us. The people whom we serve expect it of us. We could never hold
up our faces again if, for our own safety, we all forsook Him and fled, when the
shadows of the Passion began to gather around Him in his spiritual and mystical
Body, the church in Papua".
(Source: The Book of Common Prayer of the U. S. Episcopal Church, Current (1979)
Edition, Lectionary, September 2; Celebrating the Saints Daily: Spiritual
Readings for the Calendar of the Church of England, Canterbury Press, Norwich,
1988. Calendar, September 2).
Prayer
Remember, Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, all those who not only believed but
also gave their lives for the Gospel which they preached in Asia and Oceania:
pastors and faithful, religious men and women, catechists and laity, mothers and
fathers, often united in their sufferings by a new bond of communion and
fraternity, and a readiness to give their lives for one another. They have shown
the power and the beauty of the Beatitude of the peacemakers and they shall be
called children of God.
May their names be written in heaven.
R/. Kyrie eleison.
Choral Interlude (chant from the Asian tradition)
5. Christian faithful persecuted out of hatred for the Catholic faith
Testimony
Manuel Irujo, Minister of Justice in the Spanish Republican Government
A Catholic, the Justice Minister Irujo tendered his resignation on 11
December 1937 after having failed to re-establish freedom of worship, but he
continued to be a member of the Government. At the end of 1937 he was given the
task of negotiating with some representatives of the Church, especially Cardinal
Vidal y Barraquer, Archbishop of Tarragona.
In a memorandum presented at a Government meeting in the then capital of the
Republic, Valencia, on 9 January 1937, he thus described the religious
persecutions which had occurred during the first six months of the civil war:
"Priests and religious have been arrested, thrown into prison, and shot in
their thousands without any form of trial, and these incidents, although fewer
in number, are still occurring. Not only in country villages where they are
hunted down and killed in savage fashion, but also in towns and cities. ...
Hundreds have been arrested and held in prison for no known crime other than
that they are priests or religious. ... The police, who are carrying out
house-to-house searches, making inquiries in homes, investigating the lives of
individuals and families, destroy with scorn and violence religious pictures,
printed materials, books, and anything connected with worship or which is a
reminder of it"
(From the Memorandum of January 1937).
**********
Bishop José de Jesus Manriquez y Zarate, Catholic Bishop of Huejutla
Born in 1884, he studied at the Pio Latin-American College in Rome. He was
Bishop of Huejutla (Hidalgo State) from 1922 to 1939. He was the most
intransigent opponent of the anti-religious policy of President Calles. In May
1926, a few months before the outbreak of the Cristeros civil war, he was
arrested and placed under house-arrest because of his criticism of the
anti-clerical Constitution which came into effect in 1917. Later he was forced
into exile with all the other Mexican Bishops. The Government imposed this exile
as a condition for the pacification of the country, which was arrived at in June
1929. The Bishop returned to the country, but was exiled again in 1932. He died
in 1951. On 30 October 1927, in Laredo, Texas, on the Feast of Christ the King,
he had this to say:
"The Great Sacrifice is no longer offered on the altars, the churches are
deserted, consecrated women in tears and priests silently weep or endure the
bitterness of exile; many of Mexico's children have been barbarously sacrificed,
others are in prison and a huge multitude has gone to foreign lands in search of
refuge and bread.
And how has Mexico responded to all these wrongs? By proclaiming before the
world the kingship of Christ; by praising and blessing Christ and kneeling
before the Holy One of the Lord, to ask mercy and forgiveness. Mexico has had
the very high honour of proclaiming Christ the King on the battlefields in the
heart of the twentieth century, and, before the admiring gaze of other nations,
she has vigorously defended her faith, not only with prayers, not only with
reparation, but by pouring out her generous blood in torrents."
(Consuelo Reguer, Dios y mi direcho, Mexico 1997, pp. 704-705).
Prayer
Remember, Father of holiness and fidelity, the immense assembly of all your sons
and daughters who suffered persecution in some nations, even traditionally
Catholic nations. They did not renounce the faith of their Baptism and in
various ways proclaimed the name of Christ the King and Saviour. They
experienced the Beatitude of those who are persecuted for righteousness' sake
and they remained faithful to the end.
May they receive from you the crown of glory.
R/. Kyrie eleison.
6. Witnesses of evangelization in Africa and Madagascar
Testimonies
Jolique Rusimbamigera, a seminarian from Burundi
Jolique Rusimbamigera was a student in the seminary of Buta when on 30 April
1997, although gravely wounded, he escaped from the massacre in which forty-four
Hutu and Tutsi seminarians was killed because they refused to separate along
ethnic lines.
A year later he gave this testimony:
"There were very many of them, a hundred it seemed to me. They entered our
dormitory, the one of the three classes of the senior years, and they shot in
the air four times to wake us up... Immediately they began to threaten us, and
moving between the beds they ordered us to separate, Hutus on one side and
Tutsis on the other. They were armed to the teeth: rifles, grenades, pistols,
knives... But we stayed together as a group! Then their leader lost patience and
gave the order: 'Shoot these idiots who won't separate'. They fired the first
shots at the ones under the beds... As we lay in our blood, we prayed and begged
pardon for those who were killing us. I heard the voices of my companions who
were saying, 'Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing'.
Deep within, I uttered the same words and offered my life into God's
hands".
**********
W.G.R. Jotcham, a young Baptist medical missionary from Canada, who died in
Nigeria
W. G. R. Jotcham, a young Baptist medical missionary from Canada, was born in
1915. Immediately after graduation he joined other missionaries working in the
leprosarium in Katsina, in a Moslem area of Nigeria. In 1938, a meningitis
epidemic struck the leprosarium and the nearby villages. Dr Jotcham worked
tirelessly in the effort to assist the badly stricken population. He died at the
age of 23, himself a victim of the epidemic. His first months of service were
for him a great discovery of God's love, which he himself defined as a power
capable of "reawakening the buried hopes of old people without love, of the
blind, the crippled and those who have no voice".
"Who knows what thoughts lie hidden behind these faces? But we who see them
can at least think of when Jesus walked among lepers with a very special
compassion and cured them. These broken hearts have never been nourished with
the bread of heaven, these chill lives have never heard the Gospel story. What a
privilege to be among the first to bring the good news of salvation..."
(J. M. Hefley, By Their Blood: Christian Martyrs of the Twentieth Century, Grand
Rapids, 1996, pp. 429-430).
Prayer
Remember, Father of heaven and earth, all those Christians - Catholic, Orthodox,
Anglican and Protestant - who proclaimed the Gospel of truth and life in the
bountiful lands home to the ancient and yet young Churches in Africa and
Madagascar. With great effort they sowed the Word of life, watering it with
their blood; at every moment of the great work of evangelization, their lives
were images of that Word. They were witnesses of the Beatitude of the merciful;
they prayed and offered their lives for their friends and their persecutors.
May these forebears in the faith be eternally remembered.
R/. Kyrie eleison.
Choral Interlude (chant from the African tradition)
7. Christians who gave their lives for love of Christ and their brothers
and sisters in America
Testimonies
The Most Reverend Alejandro Labaka, Catholic Bishop of Aguarico (Ecuador)
Bishop Labaka was born in Spain on 19 April 1920 in the small Basque village
of Beizama. He became a Capuchin friar and had a strong sense of his missionary
vocation, which was later reinforced when he took part in the Second Vatican
Council. This vocation led him first to China and then to Ecuador. Here he was
Parish Priest of Pifo, Guardian of the Capuchins in Ecuador, and then Prefect
and Vicar Apostolic of the Mission of Aguarico. He spent all his energies on
behalf of the Amazonian people, the Huaorani, also known as the Acuas,
internally divided among themselves into various sub-groups often at odds with
one another and threatened with extinction. He gave his life for them.
On 22 July 1987, together with Sister Inés Arango, also a Capuchin
missionary, he was killed by the spears of the people to whom he had sought to
proclaim the Gospel. While in Rome for the Council in 1965, he wrote to Pope
Paul VI:
"I felt very strongly within me the command to preach to all peoples and
especially to these 'Acuas'. An effort to approach them began, but - and this is
my question - to what point can I put at risk the life of missionaries, of lay
people, and my own life 'propter evangelium'?... Most Holy Father: if in God's
plans it is necessary to sacrifice some lives in order to bring Christ to these
tribes, then please offer us up, together with the Divine Victim, in your Holy
Mass, so that we may be worthy of this grace and that we may obtain a special
blessing for all the missionaries and for all who have been entrusted to
us"
(Sources: Rufino Maria Grande, Arrescar la vida por el Evangelio, Cicame - Coca
1997; Alejandro Labaca, Cronica Huaorani, Cicame 1997; Juan Santos Ortiz de
Villalba, Tres nombres y una voz, Cicame 1996; P. Alfonso Miranda OFM, Relato
del martirio de Monsenor Alejandro Labaka y la hermana Inés Arango, in ACNM
CE/II-15).
**********
The Most Reverend Jesús Emilio Jaramillo Monsalve, Catholic Bishop of
Strumniza (Colombia)
Bishop Jesús Emilio Jaramillo Monsalve was born in Colombia on 14 February
1916 in the village of Santo Domingo, Antioquia. On 3 December 1944, he made
Solemn Profession in the Yarumal Foreign Mission Institute. Ordained priest on 1
September 1940, he was consecrated Bishop and Vicar Apostolic of Arauca on 11
November 1970 and titular Bishop of Strumniza on 10 January 1971. In his Diocese
he had to confront violence and social injustice. On 2 October 1989, at the age
of 73, he was tortured and killed by a group of guerillas during a pastoral
visit to rural parishes in the Diocese.
From his writings:
"Where will we find a more perfect gift, to be taught the bitter experience
of dying, if not in Jesus Christ?... It is my desire that death be the ultimate
moment of my incorporation into Christ, a sharing in his pain and an expiation
of my own sins and the sins of others. It is my desire, with all my frail
nature, to divinize my suffering and my fear, uniting myself to the terror of
the suffering Christ. Above all I confirm my faith in the Resurrection of
Christ".
(Source: S.E. Mons. Jesús Emilio Jaramillo, He ahí al Hombre, Palabras fugaces
sobre Cristo. Ed. Seminario de Misiones Extranjeras, Yarumal, Antioquia,
Colombia, 1962, p. 172)
Prayer
Remember, Father of the poor and the outcast, all those who bore witness to the
truth and the charity of the Gospel in America, even to the sacrifice of their
own lives: zealous pastors, generous priests, courageous catechists, men and
women religious faithful to their consecration, laity committed to the service
of peace and justice, witnesses of fraternity without limits. They showed the
grandeur of the Beatitude of those who hunger and thirst for God's
righteousness.
May they find peace in the vision of your countenance and be for us witnesses of
hope.
R/. Kyrie eleison.
8. Witnesses to the faith in different parts of the world
Testimonies
Dom Christian de Chergé, Prior of the Monastery of Notre Dame de l'Atlas
(Tibherin, Algeria)
The Trappists of the Monastery of Notre Dame de l'Atlas in Tibherin (Algeria)
had devoted their lives to dialogue with Islam and had chosen to remain in their
monastery, even though it was located in the mountainous region of Medea, a
high-risk area.
Dom Christian de Chergé had written: "Our state as monks [ruhban] binds
us to the choice which God has made of us, which is for prayer and for a life of
simplicity, manual labour, hospitality and sharing with all, especially the
poor...". Seized by armed terrorists on the night between 26 and 27 March
1996, they were killed on 21 May 1996.
In his spiritual testament, Dom Christian de Chergé had written:
"When the time comes, I would like to be able to have that moment of
lucidity which would permit me to ask forgiveness of God and of my brothers in
humanity, forgiving whole-heartedly, at the same time, whoever strikes me. I do
not see in fact how I could rejoice in the fact that this people whom I love
should be accused of my murder. It would be too high a price a pay, to owe what
might be called "the grace of martyrdom to an Algerian, whoever he may be,
above all if he says he is acting in fidelity to what he believes to be Islam
[...].
And you too, friend of the last moment, who will not know what you are doing,
yes, even for you I wish to say this THANK YOU, and this A-DIEU, commending you
to God in whose face I look upon you.
And may it be granted us to meet anew, joy-filled thieves, in heaven, if it
pleases God, our Father, the Father of us both. Amen".
(Spiritual Testament, in Lettere dall'Algeria, Turin 1998).
**********
H.H. Karekin I, Supreme Catholicos of All Armenians
H.H. Karekin was born on 27 August 1932 in Kesab, Syria. After completing his
studies in Antelias, Lebanon and at Oxford, he was an Observer at the Second
Vatican Council and in 1963 was consecrated Bishop. He was the Catholicos of
Cilicia and on 4 April 1995 was elected at Etchmiadzin Catholicos of All
Armenians. On 23-26 March 1999 he made his last visit to Rome, meeting His
Holiness Pope John Paul II. He died, after a long illness, on 29 June 1999.
In 1991 he wrote:
"Allow me to illustrate this basic truth by the experience of my own
Armenian people that I know best. Many historiographers have described Armenian
history as martyrology. Yes! Suffering, persecutions, destruction, massacres,
deportation or forced emigration, genocide, - and what else! - appear on almost
every page of our centuries-old annals. The survival of the Armenian people
seems to have been a miracle... Our history tells us that we have lost much in
the past; but we have succeeded in not losing ourselves. We have committed many
errors in the past; but we have not committed the error of losing faith and
hope. That has been, to my understanding, the secret of our survival .
(Karekin I, In Search of Spiritual Life, Antelias, 1991).
Prayer
Remember, God of our fathers in faith, all your children who have borne witness
to the glory of Christ's Cross as they dwelt in the midst of more numerous and
powerful peoples, even to the sacrifice of their lives: our brothers and sisters
of the ancient Churches of the East - Armenians, Syrians, Copts, Ethiopians and
Eritreans, Maronites - and of other Churches and Ecclesial Communities. Meek and
silent witnesses to your Kingdom in the nations of the Middle and Far East, they
were victims of intolerance and religious intransigence. They revealed the
splendour of the Beatitude of the pure in heart.
May they be welcomed into your Kingdom; may their memory never fade.
R/. Kyrie eleison.
Choral Interlude (a song from the Armenian tradition)
Prayer
Remember, O Lord, all these men and women. In your infinite mercy welcome all
the just who have died in your peace as courageous witnesses to the faith. You
alone, Father of all, knew their virtue, their goodness of heart, their
sufferings and their total fidelity to their religious beliefs.
May they be always with you, together with all the just, in everlasting memory.
And grant your infinite, merciful forgiveness to all their persecutors.
R/. Kyrie eleison.
The Lord's Prayer
The Holy Father:
With the prayer of the sons and daughters of God which Jesus
has taught us and which the Spirit puts in our hearts and on our lips, let us
call upon our merciful Father. Let us ask his forgiveness and let us offer
forgiveness to all, so that the Father's name will be blessed on earth as it
is in heaven
Pater noster...
Quia tuum est regnum...
Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come.
Thy will be done on earth, as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread,
and forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us, and
lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.
Prayer
The Holy Father:
Father, you willed that the glorious death of your Son, the Victim slain for our
sins, should be the source of our reconciliation and peace. Grant that your
Church, in commemorating the witnesses to the faith in the twentieth century may
shine before the world with the splendour of the Beatitudes.
May an your faithful ones be cleansed by the blood of the lamb and made one by
your Spirit of love.
We ask this through Christ our Lord.
IV. BLESSING AND DISMISSAL
Invitation to keep alive the memory of the witnesses to the faith
The Holy Father:
At the conclusion of this celebration I thank all of you, and in particular the
Representatives of the Churches and Ecclesial Communities gathered here to
commemorate the witnesses to the faith of the twentieth century. I exhort all to
keep alive the memory of our brothers and sisters and to imitate their example.
From their hands may the younger generation especially receive the torch of
faith in order to bear witness throughout the world to the Risen Christ, the
faithful Witness,
in the one, holy Church which God has established in the world until the Lord
Jesus Christ returns in glory.
Blessing
Final Choral Hymn
|