On the feast day of Christianity\u2019s original martyr, Pope Francis issued a strong call not to forget the testimony of today\u2019s victims of anti-Christian persecution around the world, a stunning number of whom have made the supreme sacrifice in recent years.<\/p>\n
\u201cEven today the Church, to render witness to the light and the truth, is beset in various places by hard persecutions, up to the supreme test of martyrdom,\u201d Francis said on Monday.<\/p>\n
\u201cHow many of our brothers and sisters in the faith suffer abuses and violence, and are hated because of Jesus!\u201d
\n\u201cI\u2019ll tell you something,\u201d the pope said. \u201cThe number of martyrs today is greater than in the early centuries [of the Church]. When we read the history of the early centuries, here in Rome, we read about so much cruelty to Christians. It\u2019s happening today too, in even greater numbers.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cToday we want to think of them and be close to them with our affection, our prayer and also our tears,\u201d the pontiff said. \u201cIn these days, in Iraq, the Christians celebrated Christmas in a cathedral that had been destroyed. That\u2019s an example of fidelity.
\n\u201cThe hardships and dangers notwithstanding, they offer courageous witness by belonging to Christ, and they live the Gospel committing themselves in favor of the least, of the most overlooked, doing good to all without distinction. …<\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Dette h\u00f8rer vi i dagens messe: Inngangsvers Himmelens porter \u00e5pnet seg for den hellige Stefan, den f\u00f8rste av martyrskaren. Derfor jubler han i himmelen med seierens krone. Kollektb\u00f8nn Herre, vi ber deg, hjelp oss \u00e5 etterligne ham vi \u00e6rer, s\u00e5 vi kan l\u00e6re \u00e5 elske ogs\u00e5 v\u00e5re fiender. For i dag feirer vi den hellige […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,11,6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-11795","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-katolsk","category-liturgi","category-paven"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/aomoi.net\/blogg\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11795","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/aomoi.net\/blogg\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/aomoi.net\/blogg\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/aomoi.net\/blogg\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/aomoi.net\/blogg\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11795"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/aomoi.net\/blogg\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11795\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11800,"href":"https:\/\/aomoi.net\/blogg\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11795\/revisions\/11800"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/aomoi.net\/blogg\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11795"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/aomoi.net\/blogg\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11795"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/aomoi.net\/blogg\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11795"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
![\"\"](\"http:\/\/aomoi.net\/blogg\/bilder\/hl_stefanus.jpg\")
<\/p>\n