Agios.Mar 18

Cardinal Marc Ouellet, prefect of the Congregation for Bishops, held a ceremony on March 27 at the Basilica of Santa Maria in Trastevere in Rome, Italy, with the Sant’Egidio community to prepare the celebration of the Easter triduum.

Figures who have offered their lives for the Gospel, blood of known and unknown martyrs, were recalled during the prayers of the faithful.

Never in history have Christians been so persecuted, massacred and united by the testimony of blood as they are today. Our times are the times of blood ecumenism. In very different contexts and for various reasons, we are beaten and killed a little bit everywhere because we are Christians.

The prayer meeting was convened in “thanks to God for the shed blood, which continues to flow in the veins of noble and humble witnesses of the Gospel.”

“This remembrance is also a challenge to all of us, poor sinners, to further raise the torch of daily love towards everyone and especially towards the refugees, the abandoned, the poor,” the cardinal continued.

The ceremony took place a few days after the announcement was made of the upcoming canonisation of Oscar Romero, a martyr of our times who died 38 years ago in San Salvador when he was celebrating Mass.

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Br Antonio Martínez Estaún, Procurator general
Agios.Mar