Ahead of the 2025 Jubilee, Pope Francis sets out to honor Christian martyrs of all denominations across the globe who were killed for their faith since 2000.
In a bid to actualize his project which seeks to honor these martyrs at the upcoming Jubilee of 2025, the Pope has commissioned a new group at the Vatican’s Dicastery for the Causes of Saints who will work to identify these Christians of all denominations who died amid confession of their faith in the last quarter of a century.
“In view of the forthcoming Jubilee of 2025, which will see us gathered as ‘Pilgrims of Hope’, I have established at the Dicastery for the Causes of Saints the ‘Commission of the New Martyrs – Witnesses of the Faith, to draw up a Catalogue of all those who have shed their blood to confess Christ and bear witness to His Gospel,” Pope Francis stated in a letter released on Wednesday.
The Jubilee celebration usually lasts for a year, starting from Christmas to a few days after the following year’s Christmas. It is “a special year of grace, in which the Catholic Church offers the faithful the possibility of asking for a plenary indulgence, that is, the remission of sins for themselves or for deceased relatives,” the 2025 Jubilee website states.
The Pontiff noted in his letter that the Jubilee is celebrated as “a matter of continuing historical research in order to gather the testimonies of life, up to the shedding of blood, of these sisters and brothers of ours, so that their memory can stand as a treasure cherished by the Christian community. The research will concern not only the Catholic Church but will extend to all Christian denominations.
He also pointed out that martyrs today “are more numerous in our time than in the first centuries.”
“They are bishops, priests, consecrated men and women, lay people and families, who in the different countries of the world, with the gift of their lives, have offered the supreme proof of charity,” he said