Author George Weigel, who wrote the biography of St. Pope John Paul II, applauded his colleague Robert Royal’s new book, The Martyrs of the New Millennium, which details the ongoing persecution of Christians around the world.
Weigel, who has been a friend of Royal for four decades, praised him as “a gifted linguist, a serious Dante scholar, and a close student of modern Catholic intellectual life.”
Royal’s first book on martyrdom, Weigel wrote, was a response to Pope John Paul II’s Commission on the New Martyrs, which found that more Christians had been killed in the 20th century in “hatred of the faith” (odium fidei) than in the past 19 centuries combined.
“A recognition of the martyrs of our time, John Paul hoped, would strengthen the faith of Catholics as we marked the two thousandth anniversary of the Incarnation,” Weigel wrote. “Bob Royal made an outstanding contribution to the fulfillment of that hope with his book.”
The Catholic Martyrs of the Twentieth Century: A Comprehensive World History, Weigel continued, “remains the gold standard for those who wish to learn, and learn from, that story of Christian heroism.”
His new work, The Martyrs of the New Millennium: The Global Persecution of Christians in the Twenty-First Century, outlines the persecution of Christians in Latin America, the Middle East, Africa, Asia, and parts of the Western world.
The chapter on Communist China’s persecution of Christians, Weigel wrote, “should be required reading in the Vatican Secretariat of State when, it may be hoped, a root-and-branch re-appraisal of the last pontificate’s China policy is undertaken.”
According to Weigel, while Royal recognizes that the situation in China is nuanced and complicated, he also recognizes that China’s Xi Jinping “is not interested in accommodating the Catholic Church.”
Martyrdom is the closest that man can come to Christ’s redemptive sacrifice for the Church, which led to the Resurrection and the hope of heaven.
“For reminding us of this,” Weigel concluded, “Bob Royal has earned the gratitude of the world Church.”
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Author: Grace Porto
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