Pope Honors 20th Century Christian Martyrs

In a poignant appeal for unity among Christians, Pope John Paul II held a candlelight commemoration Sunday night for thousands of 20th century martyrs of many Christian churches and declared that their suffering “speaks more powerfully than all the causes of division” among Jesus’ followers.

Clergy from 18 Orthodox Christian and Protestant churches helped conduct the liturgical service, the most broadly representative ecumenical event ever staged by the Vatican. Hundred of worshipers stood in a drizzle for two hours, wedged between Rome’s ancient Colosseum and the Arch of Titus.

A witness to violent Nazi and Communist occupations of his homeland, the Polish-born John Paul speaks of the past century as a particularly brutal era. Roman Catholic historians believe it has produced more Christian martyrs than the previous 19 centuries together.

The pope has asked the Vatican to list and document the lives of Christians who were killed or persecuted for practicing their faith anywhere during the last 100 years. The effort is central to the church’s yearlong Jubilee 2000, along with John Paul’s repentance for sins that Catholics have committed against people of other beliefs.

By opening the martyrs list to followers of other churches, the pope is seeking to mend rifts dividing Christian churches--a cause he has pushed throughout his 21-year papacy with disappointing results.

“The example of the heroic witnesses to the faith is truly precious for all Christians,” he told Sunday’s gathering. “In the 20th century, almost all the churches have known persecution, uniting Christians in the places of suffering and making their shared sacrifice a sign of hope for times still to come.”

The Vatican has collected the names of more than 12,000 martyrs from churches around the world, to be submitted for the pope’s consideration by the end of the year. The campaign is separate from any individual lobbying in behalf of would-be Catholic saints.

The Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., the slain American civil rights leader who was a Baptist minister, is on the unfinished list, which has not been published. Seventeen martyrs were mentioned by name during Sunday’s commemoration, including Msgr. Oscar Romero, the Catholic archbishop of El Salvador who was killed by a right-wing death squad 20 years ago.

“There are so many of them!” the pope exclaimed in his message, which preached forgiving one’s tormentors and shunning vengeance. “They are men and women of every land. They are of all ages and callings.”

There are “countless unknown soldiers who fought for the great cause of the Gospel,” he said, and whose names were concealed by their killers.

John Paul, who will turn 80 this month, sat in the drizzle until late in the ceremony, when altar boys raised umbrellas over him and the other clergy. Behind the platform where they sat, a banner depicting the crucified Christ hung from a wall of the Colosseum, where some historians say ancient Romans killed early Christians.

The ceremony featured choirs from Ukraine, the Philippines, Africa and Armenia, and prayers in 17 languages.

“It was a wonderfully moving, telling and inspiring occasion,” said the Right Rev. Michael Scott-Joynt, the Anglican bishop of Winchester, England, who took part. “It’s extremely important that Christians of all traditions find a common witness in the suffering of so many.”

The highlight was a series of vivid readings about sufferings of individual martyrs, some taken from their memoirs. The martyrs were held up as examples of Christian resistance to Communist and Nazi rule, armed Islamic insurgency in Algeria and anticlerical repression during the Mexican Revolution and Spanish Civil War.

Others were Catholic missionaries in dangerous parts of Asia, Africa and Latin America. Karekin I, the Armenian Orthodox leader who died last year, was singled out for his country’s survival through a century of what he called “persecutions, destruction, massacres, deportation or forced emigration” inflicted by outsiders.

Some testimonies reflected the ecumenical theme: A young Catholic bishop and an elderly Orthodox bishop worked together to comfort fellow prisoners in a Stalin-era Soviet gulag. A Lutheran pastor perished in solitary confinement at Buchenwald after trying to preach in the Nazi death camp.

Among recent cases cited were a 1997 raid in Burundi, in which 44 Hutu and Tutsi seminarians were killed for refusing to separate along ethnic lines, and a fatal spear attack in 1987 on Father Alejandro Labaka, a Spanish missionary trying to preach among the indigenous people of Ecuador’s Amazon jungle.