Pope Leo XIV says Christians who remain faithful to Christ even at the cost of their lives are offering the modern world a powerful witness of courage, peace and hope.
Speaking Wednesday to participants in a Vatican conference examining contemporary martyrdom, Pope Leo reflected on men and women who have died while living out the Gospel in difficult circumstances around the world.
According to Vatican News, the conference, “21st Century: A New Age of Martyrs?”, was organized by the Dicastery for the Causes of Saints and its Commission of the New Martyrs – Witnesses of the Faith.
“We admire these brothers and sisters of ours as stars shining in the darkness of selfishness and oppression,” Pope Leo said. “They help the Church to reflect more fully the light of Christ the Lord, so as to point humanity today towards the path that leads to the civilization of love.”
The Commission was established by Pope Francis in 2023 to collect testimonies about Christians who have lost their lives for Christ, regardless of whether a formal cause for beatification or canonization is underway.
Pope Leo emphasized that the designation “witnesses of the faith” encompasses situations that may not fit the traditional canonical understanding of martyrdom.
According to Vatican News, the Pope explained that many Christians have been killed through abuses of power or by criminal organizations after opposing injustice in accordance with the Gospel. In some cases, the motives of those responsible cannot clearly be classified as hatred of the Christian faith.
“The concept of ‘witness of the faith,’” Pope Leo explained, “was formulated precisely in order to embrace and honour complex historical situations in which the motivation of the perpetrators cannot be explicitly attributed to ‘hatred of the faith’.”
Rather than determining whether someone meets the juridical requirements associated with a formal declaration of martyrdom, the Commission’s work is historical and educational. Its attention is directed particularly toward the Christian who remained faithful to Christ and his or her evangelical commitment even unto death.
Pope Leo said such witnesses are especially important in an age marked by the pursuit of power, violence and increasingly sophisticated weapons.
Yet their response is not one of retaliation.
“In them, the Christian way of life is manifested heroically: it never seeks confrontation, but rather disarms it through the power of meekness,” the Pope said.
Their witness, he explained, is also not fundamentally ideological. It comes from living the Christian faith consistently, allowing words and actions to correspond even when doing so carries an extraordinary personal cost.
That witness can be particularly powerful in societies where religious indifference has become widespread.
“In cultural contexts marked by indifference, the ‘holiness next door’ and silent heroism,” Pope Leo said, “become significant forms of witness, capable of challenging everyone, even those who are most distrustful.”
For the Pope, these contemporary witnesses ultimately point beyond themselves. Their perseverance demonstrates a Christian hope rooted in Christ’s victory over evil and reminds the Church that fidelity to the Gospel can transform the world through sacrifice rather than force.
“By giving their lives for justice, truth, peace and freedom,” Pope Leo said, “the witnesses of the faith have contributed effectively to the coming of the new heavens and the new earth, which we confidently await through the mercy of God.”
The Pope concluded by reminding Catholics that this witness is not something Christians are simply called to admire from afar.
“We are all called to make our contribution to this horizon of commitment, to this workshop of hope,” he said.
According to Vatican News, Pope Leo concluded the meeting by thanking those involved in preserving the stories of contemporary witnesses of the faith and imparting his Apostolic Blessing.
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