Upcoming Vatican conference to highlight new martyrs

September 11, 2026

At a September 10 press conference (video), two Vatican officials and the founder of the Community of Sant’Egidio discussed an upcoming conference on 21st-century martyrs.

“The 21st century: a new time of martyrs?“ will begin on September 15 at the Augustinianum and conclude the following day with a papal audience. Cardinal Marcello Semeraro, prefect of the Dicastery for the Causes of Saints; Archbishop Fabio Fabene, secretary of the dicastery and president of the New Martyrs—Witnesses to the Faith Commission; and Andrea Riccardi, vice president of the New Martyrs—Witnesses to the Faith Commission and the Community of Sant’Egidio’s founder, took part in the press conference.

“The grace of holiness in the Church is signified, but not exhausted, by canonizations,” said Cardinal Semeraro, who quoted from Pope Benedict XVI:

To suffer with the other and for others; to suffer for the sake of truth and justice; to suffer out of love and in order to become a person who truly loves—these are fundamental elements of humanity, and to abandon them would destroy man himself. Yet once again the question arises: are we capable of this? …

For this too we need witnesses—martyrs—who have given themselves totally, so as to show us the way—day after day. We need them if we are to prefer goodness to comfort, even in the little choices we face each day—knowing that this i show we live life to the full. Let us say it once again: the capacity to suffer for the sake of the truth is the measure of humanity

The prelate also highlighted the “ecumenical significance of this initiative, which was intended for the Commission by John Paul II from the very beginning.”

Vatican News, the news agency of the Dicastery for Communication, reported that among the new martyrs “are those who fought, even to the point of laying down their lives, against drug trafficking or deforestation; those who paid with their blood for protecting entire villages from the exploitation of natural resources, exploitation that devastates ecosystems and renders them uninhabitable; and those who denounced criminal or corrupt acts for the good of a community or an entire country, and were never forgiven for it. These are the new martyrs of the 21st century, estimated to number around 1,700.”

 

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Further information:

• Press Conference to present the Conference “The 21st century: a new time of martyrs?” (Augustinianum, 15 September 2026) (Holy See Press Office, 9/10/26)
• I nuovi martiri del XXI secolo, convegno per riflettere sui Santi della “porta accanto” (Vatican News, 9/10/26)