The Devil is behind the hatred driving the persecution of Christians around the world, Pope Francis has said.
Speaking at a prayer service in Rome’s Basilica of St Bartholomew, which has been dedicated to the New Martyrs since 2000, the Pope reflected on the Gospel in which Jesus said, “If the world hates you, remember that it hated me before you”.
The Pontiff said, “Because we were saved by Jesus, and the prince of the world doesn’t want this, he hates us and provokes the persecution,” observing that martyrdom “is a grace from God, not courage”.
The Pope’s comments followed testimonies from three people closely linked to Christianity’s recent victims of persecution: Roselyne Hamel, sister of Fr Jacques Hamel, the 85-year-old French priest who was murdered last year while he was saying Mass; Francisco Hernandez, who spoke about William Quijano, a 21-year old who was killed in El Salvador in 2009, for trying to keep young people out of gangs; and Karl Schneider, son of Paul Schneider, the first Protestant minister to be martyred by the Nazis.
Ahead of the ceremony, the Vatican’s representative to the United Nations Archbishop Bernardito Auza called on the UN Security Council to “intensify efforts to spare [religious and ethnic minorities] from the genocidal scourge of violent terrorist groups and other non-state actors”.
Describing the Palm Sunday terrorist bombings in Egypt as “abominable attacks” that went against “the very foundation of human dignity and right”, he said the upcoming papal visit would be used to “stress once again that there is no greater antidote to violence and hatred than dialogue and encounter”.