Martyrs sustain the Church, Pope says
January 30, 2017
“The martyrs are those who carry the Church forward,” Pope Francis said in a homily at a weekday Mass at the Domus Sanctae Marthae. “They are those who support the Church, who have supported her, and support her today.”
Emphasizing the importance of martyrs for the life of the Church, the Holy Father observed “today there are more of them than in the first centuries.” The Christian martyrs of today are largely ignored by the media, he said, but they sustain the Church.
The Pope went on to say that “the greatest strength of the Church today is in the little churches—tiny, with few people, persecuted, with their bishops in prison.”
“A Church without martyrs, I would dare to say, is a Church without Jesus,” the Pope said.
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