EUROPE/GERMANY - "Witnesses of Christ": new edition of the German martyrology of the twentieth century with 60 missionaries killed

Friday, 6 March 2015

Bonn (Agenzia Fides) - In memory of the martyrs of the 20th century, the German Bishops' Conference (DBK) has recently published the sixth edition of the "German Martyrology" with the title "Witnesses of Christ". With this publication, the Bishops wanted to respond to the appeal launched by Pope John Paul II in view of the 2000 Great Jubilee Year, in order not to forget the testimony of "new martyrs".
Over the past few years Mgr. Helmut Moll, who sent to Agenzia Fides news of the publication, collected the testimony of more than a hundred new martyrs and victims of the violence related to the last century, completing the list published in the fifth edition which dates back to 2010. Among the biographies there are also 60 names of German missionaries killed in Papua New Guinea, the Philippines and Central America. In different circumstances, such as during his recent trip to Korea, even Pope Francis stressed the significance and importance of the witness of the martyrs for the faith of our times.
The project to collect the history of the German martyrs of the twentieth century started in 1994. Since then, about 160 experts, in collaboration with the dioceses and religious orders, have collected 900 biographies of German martyrs, gathering them up in four categories: victims of Nazism; Victims of Communism; "Martyrium puritatis" of girls, women and religious women; missionaries killed. (MS) (Agenzia Fides 06/03/2015)


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