The Martyrs of the New Millennium: The Global Persecutions of Christians in the Twenty-First Century
By Robert Royal.
Sophia Institute Press, 2025.
Hardcover, 280 pages, $24.95.
Reviewed by Rev. Anthony D. Andreassi, C.O.
Since the liturgical reforms of the Second Vatican Council, Catholics have grown accustomed to seeing white, purple, or black vestments at funeral Masses. So even some of the more liturgically informed may have been puzzled to see red worn at the recent funeral of Pope Francis. Yet the choice was deeply symbolic: St. Peter, the first pope, also died a martyr’s death. As his successor, Pope Francis shared not only in Peter’s office but also in the call to witness to Christ—even to the point of shedding blood—just as Peter and 30 of his successors did.
While pope-martyrs may seem a thing of the distant past, tragically, a growing number of Christians today continue to bear witness to Christ in the ultimate way. And their stories must be remembered and told. Twenty-five years after his acclaimed Catholic Martyrs of the Twentieth Century, Robert Royal returns to this urgent topic as the Church marks another jubilee year. Before guiding readers across six continents—with each chapter recounting powerful stories of modern martyrdom—Royal begins with a review of Catholic teaching on martyrdom. Traditionally, a martyr is one who dies for the faith. Yet Pope Saint John Paul II broadened this understanding, recognizing that a growing number of Christians killed in the twentieth century, while not fitting the classic definition, nonetheless displayed the heroic virtue of true martyrdom.
The 1982 canonization of Maximilian Kolbe was one of the earliest examples of this expanded understanding of sanctity. Recognized as a “martyr of charity,” this Polish Franciscan was not killed strictly for his faith. Rather, he voluntarily died in one of the Nazi death camps in place of another prisoner who was married with a family. Previously, this kind of death had not seemed worthy of possible canonization. Nevertheless, Saint John Paul II and the two popes who have followed him have seen that modern times require further reflection and expansion of the theology of Christian sanctity. In 2017, this developing understanding led Pope Francis to add the category of “freely offering one’s life” to the other pathways for canonization in the Church.
For his study of martyrs of the new millennium, Royal begins with Latin America, a region whose nations—thanks to Spanish evangelization and colonization—historically have had large, if not overwhelmingly, Catholic populations. But even in places where Catholic practice remains strong, the persecution of the Church has grown for various reasons. In Mexico, much of this harassment has come as a result of the drug trade and government corruption. For example, in 1993, Juan Jesús Posadas Ocampo, the cardinal archbishop of Guadalajara, was gunned down at an airport in his archdiocese. Preliminary reports suggested he had been killed accidentally in a shootout between rival gangs. However, some years later, after the defeat of the party that had ruled the nation since 1929, evidence surfaced of government collusion in his death—once it became known that he had discovered its collaboration with drug lords and feared he might go public with the information. Sadly, the persecution of Mexican clergy working against corruption and drug violence has not ended there.
An analysis from 2023 has shown that it is more dangerous to be a Catholic priest in Mexico than anywhere else on earth, since in some areas of Latin America Catholic clergy are often the only voices raised against government corruption and criminal syndicates. While no cause for canonization has yet been introduced for Ocampo, his death—and those of others like him—arguably fits this new category of martyrdom. While such circumstances form much of the background for the persecution of Christians in Latin America, they are not the only cause.
Marxism and totalitarianism remain disturbingly present in Cuba, Venezuela, and especially Nicaragua, where the Church faces severe persecution. Ruling as co-presidents, Daniel Ortega and his wife Rosario Murillo have transformed Nicaragua into an authoritarian state—crushing dissent and consolidating power. The Catholic Church has been a primary target: clergy have been arrested, churches shut down, religious communities like the Missionaries of Charity expelled, and Church property seized. This campaign has silenced much of the Church’s prophetic voice and forced many leaders into exile. As recently as two years ago, two bishops and dozens of priests and seminarians were jailed on fabricated charges. Only time will tell whether some will be asked to pay the ultimate price for refusing to remain silent under a regime bent on total control.
Royal next turns to the Middle East, where rising Islamic fundamentalism has not only taken Christian lives but also driven a mass exodus from lands where Christianity has existed since the earliest centuries. In Iraq, the Christian population has declined by nearly 80% since 2003. Neighboring Syria has fared little better. In 2014, Dutch Jesuit Fr. Frans van der Lugt, who had spent decades serving disabled children in Syria, was murdered in Homs. Despite having a chance to escape the besieged city, he chose to remain in solidarity with those sheltering in his monastery. For that act of courage and fidelity, he was executed—shot twice in the head by a masked gunman.
As in Latin America and the Middle East, Royal documents the growing persecution of Christians in Africa, where nearly one-third of the world’s Christians—about 750 million—now live. While Christianity is expanding rapidly across the continent, it faces mounting threats from Islamic extremists, especially in regions with weak or unstable governments. Open Doors, which tracks religious persecution, lists five African countries among the world’s ten worst for religious freedom. Nigeria stands out as the most dangerous: in 2023–24, more Christians were killed there than in the rest of the world combined. Yet, puzzlingly, the Biden administration removed Nigeria from its list of Countries of Particular Concern in 2021.
Turning to Asia, Pakistan stands out for its harsh treatment of Christians. Unlike Nigeria, where Christianity is growing, Pakistan’s Christian minority—about three million people, or 1.3% of the population—remains small and vulnerable. Christians are regularly accused under the country’s strict blasphemy laws, and over the past three decades, at least 65 have been killed by vigilantes for allegedly insulting the Prophet Muhammad. Elsewhere in Asia, North Korea may be the most dangerous place in the world to be a Christian. In this closed, totalitarian state, persecution has reached levels likened to the treatment of Jews under Nazi Germany. Even Forbes has raised the question of whether the regime’s actions constitute genocide.
Finally in Asia, the situation of Christians in China—especially Catholics—is so dire that Royal devotes an entire chapter to it. After the Communist victory in 1949, Catholics faced severe repression: foreign missionaries were expelled and many clergy, including bishops, were imprisoned for refusing to sever ties with Rome and join a state-controlled Church. Following Mao’s death in 1976, conditions gradually improved until about 2005. Even then, however, Catholics continued to face harassment. Royal describes this shift as a move from “red” to “white” martyrdom—less physical violence, but persistent intimidation. The regime, he argues, sought to avoid the global backlash of producing new Christian martyrs while still keeping the Church under tight control.
In 2005, under Pope Benedict XVI, the Vatican began negotiations with Beijing—an effort many now view as misguided—in hopes of securing a formal agreement to protect the rights of Chinese Catholics. A central goal was to resolve the division between the state-sanctioned Patriotic Church and the Underground Church, which remained loyal to Rome. Cardinal Joseph Zen, now 93 and a participant in those early talks, later criticized the Vatican diplomats involved as naive and inexperienced in dealing with totalitarian regimes. Little progress was made during Benedict’s pontificate, and the same held true under Pope Francis, who from the outset prioritized improving the status of the Church in China. In 2018, the Vatican and Beijing signed a provisional agreement on the appointment of bishops that intended to ensure that bishops would be recognized by both the Holy See and the Chinese government. Unfortunately, Beijing has repeatedly violated the terms of that agreement. Most recently, in June of this year, Pope Leo XIV made his first episcopal appointment under the deal, signaling his intention to continue one of Francis’s most controversial foreign policy initiatives. Whether the new pope will succeed where his predecessors struggled remains to be seen.
The final chapter of Royal’s book turns to the Church in the West, focusing primarily on North America and Europe, where Christians face two distinct but growing threats. In parts of Europe, especially France, radicalized Islam poses a danger, as tragically seen in 2016 when Fr. Jacques Hamel was murdered by two 19-year-old Islamist extremists while celebrating Mass in Normandy. Recognizing his death as a martyrdom, Pope Francis waived the usual five-year waiting period to open his cause for canonization. Yet the more pervasive threat in the West today comes from an increasingly intolerant secularism, which permits no criticism of its ideological dogmas. In 2023, for instance, a man in England was arrested simply for praying silently outside an abortion clinic—accused, essentially, of a “thought crime.” In North America, anti-Christian hostility has also flared: following disputed reports of mass graves at former residential schools in Canada, more than two dozen churches were set on fire. The Canadian government, under then-Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, responded with little more than rhetorical “context,” offering scant condemnation of the attacks.
Well-researched and carefully footnoted, this new study of contemporary Christian martyrdom quickly draws the reader in through the author’s crisp prose and compelling stories of real people whose extraordinary courage stands in stark contrast to a world increasingly reluctant to live—or die—for anything. Given the number of individuals and events discussed, a future edition would benefit greatly from the addition of a comprehensive index, as readers may find themselves wanting to revisit specific accounts.
Rev. Anthony D. Andreassi, C.O., Ph.D., is the author of Teach Me to Be Generous: The First Century of Regis High School in New York City.
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