More Christian martyrs now than 1,700 years ago

Pope Francis on Friday lamented the fact that intolerance and persecution create more Christian martyrs today than in the early Church.  He said this in his speech at the opening of a two-day international conference in Rome on “Religious Freedom According to International Law and Global Conflict of Values.” The joint organizers of the congress were the Law department of the Maria SS. Assunta University in Rome and the Law School of St. John’s University in New York City.

The Holy Father told the conference, “Nowadays, persecution of Christians is stronger than it was in the first centuries of the Church, and there are more Christian martyrs than in that time. This is happening 1,700 years after the Edict of Constantine, which granted Christians the freedom to publicly profess their faith.”