Cost: no cost

Prayer in memory of those who gave their lives for the Gospel will be Palm Sunday, March 25, at 7 p.m. at St. Matthew Cathedral. Father Terry Fisher, Presider. For more information please contact Richard LaSalvia at [email protected]

(This prayer is not a Mass).

Hosted by the Community of Sant’Egidio, co-sponsored by the Catholic Peace Fellowship and Under Caesar’s Sword and the Office for Ecumenical and Interreligious Relations Diocese of Fort Wayne-South Bend

In many parts of the world Christians, even at the risk of their own lives, do not cease to proclaim the Gospel of Christ’s peace. This strong, nonviolent witness of our brothers and sisters helps us to understand the meaning of the Cross of Jesus, of His Passion and Resurrection. Continuing a tradition started in Rome, and encouraged by St. John Paul II, this memorial prayer remembers the faithful of all Christian traditions of the 20th & 21st Centuries who have been given the grace to offer their lives for the sake of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

“We know that there is no growth without the Spirit: it is He who is Church, it is He who makes the Church grow, it is He who convokes the Church’s community. But the witness of Christians is necessary too. And when historical situations require a strong witness, there are martyrs, the greatest witnesses. And the Church grows thanks to the blood of the martyrs. This is the beauty of martyrdom. It begins with witness, day after day, and it can end like Jesus.” – Pope Francis