Joanna Bogle reviews The Martyrs of the New Millenium

The Martyrs of the New Millenium: the global persecution of Christians in the Twenty First Century. Robert Royal, Sophia Institute Press.

If you thought Christian martyrdom belongs only to history, think again. In the 20th century we saw vicious persecution of Christians in Nazi Germany, in the Soviet Union, and in Mao's China. What about the 21st?

In Nigeria Christian farms and villages have been ravaged by extremist Moslem groups, churches have been attacked and hostages taken. In January 2020 18-year-old Michael Nnadi, a student at the seminary in Kaduna in northern Nigeria was abducted and murdered. Boko Haram - its slogan means "Western books forbidden" but its formal title is" Group of the People of Sunnah for Dawah and Jihad" attacked and burned a Catholic church in 2014, killing many people and forcing many to flee: a number of families are still refugees in neighbouring Cameroon.

In Britain and the West generally it is not fashionable to speak about these things. The Church in Africa knows this. After a massacre at a Pentecost Mass in his diocese in 2023 the Bishop of Ondo in Nigeria remarked sadly "40 of my people were not killed because of global warming but because they were Christians".

Robert Royal's book is readable, fact-filled and challenging. It will not make comfortable reading for those who prefer to speak vaguely about all religions being basically the same and merely different paths up a mountain. Persecution of Christians today is real, and we need to pay attention to what is happening.

The worldwide charity Aid to the Church in Need which provides practical help to persecuted Christians and the book carries a Foreword by George J Marlin, who is chairman of ACN in the USA. It also carries endorsements from, among others, Cardinal Gerhard Mueller, former Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, and papal biographer George Weigel.

There are stories of heroism that are poignant to read. Shahbaz Bhatti, a Pakistani government minister and a Christian, gave his life for defending persecuted faith groups including Hindus and others: he was assassinated in 2011.

In March 2015 when suicide bombers attempted to enter a church in Lahore, Pakistan, during Mass, local parishioner Akash Bashir ran forward to stop them, He was unable to do so and was killed along with others standing nearby. But the majority of the congregation was saved. Bashir has now been formally named as a "Servant of God" on his way to possible canonisation: Pakistan may have its first saint.

We do well to study the plight of persecuted Christians. We are united in a common faith, and we cannot ignore what is happening to them. Royal's book contains a list of Chinese bishops and priests who have been abducted since the 1990s and are still missing. It is known that some of them will have been imprisoned in grim conditions and subjected to lengthy sessions of haranguing and attempted brainwashing.

There is no point in being naïve about all of this. Today's Christian martyrs have shown courage and forbearance. We too need these virtues. No one knows what the future holds for any of us. It is part of the rich tradition of the Church to honour the martyrs and to uphold their lives and witness as examples, invoking their aid in prayer and honouring them in our churches. This is what the early Church did, long ago in pagan Rome. Today's Christian martyrs are in union with the saints whose names we invoke at Mass.

Editor's Note: Christians in the Holy Land are also suffering persecution. The Christian population of Bethlehem where Jesus was born has declined from over 85% in the 1950s to less than 20% now. Christian property is being occupied and confiscated in Jerusalem and the West Bank. Several Christians were killed in Gaza as their churches came under attack or were destroyed. Taybeh - the last fully Christian village in the West Bank is currently surrounded by illegal settlers supported by the Israeli army.