Cantalamessa identifies the true martyrs of our day

Those suffering across the world because of persecution are “carrying the Cross” just as Christ did, the preacher of the Papal Household told a Rome congregation that included Pope Francis on Good Friday, writes Hannah Roberts. Preaching at the two-hour Liturgy of Our Lord’s Passion in St Peter’s Basilica, Fr Raniero Cantalamessa condemned the “tortures decided upon in cold blood and voluntarily inflicted at this very moment by human beings on other human beings, even on babies”.

He urged the faithful to put aside abstract concepts and reflect on the grief and anguish of individuals “with names and specific identities”. Speaking the day after the massacre of almost 150 students in Kenya, Fr Cantalamessa said: “With fear and trembling, let us also say, ‘Behold what we human beings are capable of!’”

He quoted Jesus telling the disciples: “The hour is coming when whoever kills you will think he is offering service to God,” adding, “Perhaps never before have these words found such precise fulfilment as they do today.”

Fr Cantalamessa asked for prayers for persecuted Christians. “It is Christ who gave the 21 Coptic Christians beheaded in Libya by Islamic State this past 22 February the strength to die whispering the name of Jesus,” he said. “True martyrs for Christ do not die with clenched fists but with their hands joined in prayer.”

Later during Good Friday’s Via Crucis meditations at Rome’s Colosseum, Bishop Renato Corti prayed for “inward strength” for those Christians facing persecution for their faith.

“Our martyrs today are many; we are able to say that they are more numerous than in the first centuries,” Pope Francis said on Easter Monday. “I sincerely hope that the international community does not look the other way.”