At the invitation of ACN, Robert Royal has written a book about persecuted Christians over the past 25 years. The same author wrote a book on the martyrs of the 20th Century which was published in the year 2000.
As the Church marked the Second Millennium of Christianity, Pope John Paul II led a global celebration commemorating 2,000 years since the Incarnation. Central to this Jubilee Year was a profound recognition of Christian martyrs across the centuries – those who bore witness to the Faith with their lives.
Among those contributing to that reflection was Robert Royal, president of the Faith & Reason Institute in Washington, D.C., who published a seminal study on 20th-century martyrs. His research suggested that more Christians had shed their blood in the 20th century than in the previous 19 centuries combined.
Recalling the impact of that work, Royal said, “I remember after one presentation, a woman stood up and asked, ‘Weren’t you depressed reading about all these martyrs and the terrible tortures they suffered?’ I looked at her and said, ‘That never crossed my mind. I felt like I had never spent so much time with such heroic and profoundly good human beings. They prayed for the very people who were about to execute them. In a world where many of us take faith for granted, their courage is nothing short of inspiring.’”
Now, 25 years later, Royal has released a follow-up volume, “The Martyrs of the New Millennium,” commissioned by Aid to the Church in Need (ACN), a Catholic charity under the guidance of the Holy Father that has been serving the suffering and persecuted Church and her faithful in over 140 countries since 1947. Royal will present his book at the Catholic Information Center in Washington, D.C., on 16 April, and at the Pontifical University of St. Thomas (the Angelicum) in Rome on 29 April.
In the book’s preface, ACN USA president George J. Marlin notes: “The sheer volume of material gathered here may at first seem overwhelming. Many Christians around the world face physical and social harm on a daily basis simply because they identify as Christian believers. They deserve our attention and support.”
Royal admits he hadn’t intended to revisit the subject, “but ACN made the case that because Pope Francis is trying to replicate what John Paul II did in 2000 for the 2025 Jubilee, it was worth doing. Pope Francis wanted a reckoning of the first quarter-century of the new millennium.”
Once again immersed in the stories of persecution and witness, Royal said, “you get entangled with the people you’re writing about. And going back this time – not even through the full 25 years of the 21st century – was a real eye-opener.”
While his first book focused on martyrs under communist and fascist regimes, the new volume turns to the rise of radical Islamism across Africa and Southeast Asia and to organised crime in countries like Mexico.
“Right now, the drug cartels have made Mexico the most dangerous place on Earth to be a Catholic priest,” Royal noted. “They don’t like it when priests and religious figures oppose their operations.”
Unlike his earlier work, which leaned heavily on scholarly books and Vatican archives, “The Martyrs of the New Millennium” draws on frontline reporting. “A lot of it came from daily reports by Aid to the Church in Need and other organisations chronicling persecution around the world,” he said.
Royal was particularly moved by the resolve shown by African martyrs. “Some of them knew exactly what they were facing and still persisted – even when told to convert to Islam or die. These are people on the front lines, prepared to die for their faith.”
One especially powerful account is that of Fr Vincent Machozi, an Assumptionist priest from the Democratic Republic of Congo. After studying at Boston University, Fr Machozi returned to his native land, despite the danger. He worked to raise awareness of atrocities in North Kivu. On Palm Sunday 2016, just three days after publishing a report implicating the Congolese and Rwandan governments in the violence, 10 soldiers stormed the building where he was staying and executed him.
“Fr Machozi carried out a brave – indeed fearless – ministry, trying to protect people in his homeland, which borders Rwanda and Uganda,” Royal writes. “He did it, in part, because no one else was doing anything about them.”
Those interested in ordering the book can visit the website of Sophia Institute Press.
By John Burger.
