ROME (CNS) -- The Christian church today needs believers who witness each day to the power of God's love, but it also needs the heroic witness of those who stand up to hatred even when it means giving up their lives, Pope Francis said.

At Rome's Basilica of St. Bartholomew, a shrine to modern martyrs, Pope Francis presided over an evening prayer service April 22, honoring Christians killed under Nazism, communism, dictatorships and terrorism.

"These teach us that with the force of love and with meekness one can fight arrogance, violence and war, and that with patience peace is possible," the pope said in his homily in the small basilica on Rome's Tiber Island.

Departing from his prepared text, Pope Francis said he wanted to add to the martyrs remembered at St. Bartholomew by including "a woman -- I don't know her name -- but she watches from heaven."

The pope said he'd met the woman's husband, a Muslim, in Lesbos, Greece, when he visited a refugee camp there in 2016. The man told the pope that one day, terrorists came to their home. They saw his wife's crucifix and ordered her to throw it on the ground. She refused and they slit her throat.

"I don't know if that man is still at Lesbos or if he has been able to leave that 'concentration camp,'" the pope said, explaining that despite the good will of local communities many refugee camps are overcrowded and are little more than prisons "because it seems international agreements are more important than human rights."

But, getting back to the story of the Muslim man who watched his wife be murdered, the pope said, "Now it's that man, a Muslim, who carries this cross of pain."

"So many Christian communities are the object of persecution today! Why? Because of the hatred of the spirit of this world," the pope said. Jesus has "rescued us from the power of this world, from the power of the devil," who hates Jesus' saving power and "creates the persecution, which from the time of Jesus and the early church continues up to our day."



"What does the church need today?" the pope asked. "Martyrs and witnesses, those everyday saints, those saints of an ordinary life lived with coherence. But it also needs those who have the courage to accept the grace of being witnesses to the end, to the point of death. All of those are the living blood of the church," those who "witness that Jesus is risen, that Jesus lives."

Under a large icon depicting modern martyrs of the gulag and concentration camp, Pope Francis prayed: "O Lord, make us worthy witnesses of your Gospel and your love; pour out your mercy on humanity; renew your church; protect persecuted Christians; and quickly grant the whole world peace."

During the prayer service, Pope Francis wore a stole that had belonged to Chaldean Father Ragheed Aziz Ganni, who was murdered in Mosul, Iraq, in 2007.

Father Ganni's stole along with dozens of other items that belonged to men and women martyred in the 20th and 21st centuries are on display on the side altars at the basilica, which is cared for by the lay Sant'Egidio Community.

During the prayer service, at which Anglican, Lutheran and Orthodox clergy were involved, people who had been close to those honored as martyrs at the shrine spoke.



Karl A. Schneider's father, the Rev. Paul Schneider, was the first Protestant pastor martyred by the Nazis for opposing their hate-filled doctrine. He was married and the father of six children.

"My father was assassinated in 1939 in the Buchenwald concentration camp because he believed the objectives of National Socialism were irreconcilable with the words of the Bible," Schneider told the congregation. "All of us, still today, make too many compromises, but my father remained faithful only to the Lord and to the faith."

The next to speak was Roselyne Hamel, the sister of French Father Jacques Hamel, who was murdered as he celebrated Mass July 26, 2016. The Archdiocese of Rouen has begun his sainthood cause with Pope Francis' approval. Father Hamel's breviary is preserved at St. Bartholomew's.

"Jacques was 85 years old when two young men, radicalized by hate speech, thought they could become heroes by engaging in homicidal violence," his sister told the pope. "At his age, Jacques was fragile, but he also was strong -- strong in his faith in Christ, strong in his love for the Gospel and for people."

His witness to Gospel values continues, she said, in the reaction of Christians who did not call for revenge after his death, but for love and forgiveness. And, she said, the family and local church have experienced "the solidarity of Muslims who wanted to visit our Sunday assemblies after his death."

"For his family, there certainly is pain and a void, but it is a great comfort to see how many new encounters, how much solidarity and love were generated by Jacques' witness," she said.</s>ROME (Reuters) - Pope Francis urged governments on Saturday to get migrants and refugees out of holding centers, saying many had become “concentration camps”.

Pope Francis arrives to visit the Basilica of Saint Bartholomew on the Tiber island in Rome, April 22, 2017. REUTERS/Alessandro Bianchi

During a visit to a Rome basilica, where he met migrants, Francis told of his trip to a camp on the Greek island of Lesbos last year.

He met a Muslim refugee from the Middle East there who told him how “terrorists came to our country”. Islamists had slit the throat of the man’s Christian wife because she refused to throw her crucifix on the ground.

“I don’t know if he managed to leave that concentration camp, because refugee camps, many of them, are of concentration (type) because of the great number of people left there inside them,” the pope said.

The American Jewish Committee (AJC) later urged the pope “to reconsider his regrettable choice of words” for using the term concentration camp.

“The conditions in which migrants are currently living in some European countries may well be difficult, and deserve still greater international attention, but concentration camps they certainly are not,” the AJC’s head, David Harris, said in a statement.

“The Nazis and their allies erected and used concentration camps for slave labor and the extermination of millions of people during World War II. There is no comparison to the magnitude of that tragedy,” he said.

Francis praised countries helping refugees and thanked them for “bearing this extra burden, because it seems that international accords are more important than human rights”.

He did not elaborate but appeared to be referring to agreements that keep migrants from crossing borders, such as deals between the European Union (EU) and Libya and the EU and Turkey. Humanitarian groups have criticized both deals.

The pope urged people in northern Italy, home to an anti-immigrant party, to take more migrants, hoping that the generosity of southern Italy could “infect the north a bit”.

Noting that Italy had one of the world’s lowest birth rates, he said: “If we also close the door to migrants, this is called suicide.”

The basilica of St Bartholomew is a shine to Christians killed for their faith in the 20th and 21st centuries.

It contains a prayer book used by Father Jacques Hamel, the 85-year-old French priest killed by Islamist militants who stormed into a church in Saint-Étienne-du-Rouvray last year, forced Hamel to his knees, and slit his throat while they chanted in Arabic. His sister Roselyne attended the service.</s>Pope Francis has urged governments to free migrants and refugees from holding centers in European countries, which he compared with "concentration camps." The American Jewish Committee objected to that comparison.

(Photo: Reuters/Filippo Monteforte/Pool)Migrants and refugees stand behind a fence as Pope Francis visits at the Moria refugee camp near the port of Mytilene, on the Greek island of Lesbos, Greece, April 16, 2016.

Departing from his prepared text while speaking on Saturday at Rome's Basilica of St. Bartholomew, a shrine to Christians killed for their faith in the 20th and 21st centuries, the pope recalled his trip to a camp on the Greek island of Lesbos last year.

While honoring Christians killed under Nazism, Communism, dictatorships and terrorism, the pope said that last year he met a Muslim refugee from the Middle East at the shrine. The refugee narrated how Islamists slit the throat of his Christian wife after she refused to throw her crucifix on the ground.

"I don't know if he managed to leave that concentration camp, because refugee camps, many of them, are of concentration (type) because of the great number of people left there inside them," Francis said, according to Reuters.

The pontiff added that he would like to add to the martyrs remembered there by including the Christian woman.

"I don't know her name, but she watches from Heaven. … Now it's that man, a Muslim, who carries this cross of pain," the pope said, according to Catholic News Service.

"So many Christian communities are the object of persecution today! Why? Because of the hatred of the spirit of this world," the pope said, adding that Jesus has "rescued us from the power of this world, from the power of the devil."

"What does the Church need today?" the pope continued. "Martyrs and witnesses, those everyday saints, those saints of an ordinary life lived with coherence. But it also needs those who have the courage to accept the grace of being witnesses to the end, to the point of death. All of those are the living blood of the Church," those who "witness that Jesus is risen, that Jesus lives."

However, the AJC later requested Francis "to reconsider his regrettable choice of words" for using the term concentration camp.

"The conditions in which migrants are currently living in some European countries may well be difficult, and deserve still greater international attention, but concentration camps they certainly are not," the AJC's head, David Harris, said in a statement. "The Nazis and their allies erected and used concentration camps for slave labor and the extermination of millions of people during World War II. There is no comparison to the magnitude of that tragedy."

Last month, The Guardian reported that a mass rape epidemic was taking place inside the Dunkirk refugee camp in Northern France, targeting women and children, with the former choosing to wear adult diapers over going to the toilet at night.

Dunkirk, which holds up to 2,000 refugees, including an estimated 100 unaccompanied minors, is a site of "inadequate security and atrocious living conditions," the Dunkirk Legal Support Team was quoted as explaining.

"Sexual assault, violence and rape are all far too common. Minors are assaulted and women are raped and forced to pay for smuggling with their bodies," a volunteer coordinator was quoted as saying.

Last year, persecution watchdog group Open Doors found that at least 743 Christian refugees living in camps in Germany were attacked by Muslim refugees, pointing to big failures on the part of German authorities in understanding the role of religion in the lives of refugees.

"The documented cases confirm that the situation of Christian refugees in German refugee shelters is still unbearable. As a minority they are discriminated against, beaten up by and receive death threats from Muslim refugees and partly by the Muslim staff (securities, interpreters, volunteers) on grounds of their religion," a major survey published by Open Doors Germany said in October 2016. "Taking these new cases into consideration there are now 743 Christian refugees who have reported religiously motivated attacks. With more staff at hand, a significantly higher number of cases could have been included in the survey."</s>ROME, April 22 (Reuters) – Pope Francis urged governments on Saturday to get migrants and refugees out of holding centers, saying many had become “concentration camps.”

During a visit to a Rome basilica, where he met migrants, Francis told of his visit to a camp on the Greek island of Lesbos last year.

There he met a Muslim refugee from the Middle East who told him how “terrorists came to our country.” Islamists had slit the throat of the man’s Christian wife because she refused to throw her crucifix the ground.

“I don’t know if he managed to leave that concentration camp, because refugee camps, many of them, are of concentration (type) because of the great number of people left there inside them,” the pope said.

WATCH: Two dead in fire at Lesbos migrant camp in Greece



Francis praised countries helping refugees and thanked them for “bearing this extra burden, because it seems that international accords are more important than human rights.”

He did not elaborate but appeared to be referring to agreements that keep migrants from crossing borders.

In February, the European Union pledged to finance migrant camps in Libya as part of a wider European Union drive to stem immigration from Africa.

Humanitarian groups have criticized efforts to stop migrants in Libya, where – according to a UN report last December – they suffer arbitrary detention, forced labor, rape and torture.

Last year the EU and Turkey reached a deal to send back irregular migrants from the Greek Aegean islands to Turkey in exchange for political and financial rewards for Ankara. The agreement was criticized by rights groups.

The pope urged people in northern Italy, home to an anti-immigrant party, to take more migrants, hoping that the generosity of southern Italy could “infect the north a bit.”

READ MORE: Woman arrested for trying to smuggle migrant into Spain in suitcase

Noting that Italy had one of the world’s lowest birth rates, he said: “If we also close the door to migrants, this is called suicide.”

The basilica of St Bartholomew is a shine to Christians killed for their faith in the 20th and 21st century.

It contains a prayer book used by Father Jacques Hamel, the 85-year-old French priest killed by Islamist militants who stormed into a church in Saint-Étienne-du-Rouvray last year, forced Hamel to his knees, and slit his throat while they chanted in Arabic. His sister Roselyne attended the service.</s>Pope Francis has drawn criticism from a Jewish organisation for comparing European refugee holding centres to “concentration camps”.

The pontiff made the comparison during a visit to Rome Basilica where he met with migrants on Saturday. Recalling his visit to a refugee camp on the Greek island of Lesbos last year, he talked of encountering a Muslim refugee from the Middle East who told him how “terrorists came to our country”.

According to Reuters, islamists cut the throat of the man's Christian wife because she refused to throw her crucifix on the ground

Pope Francis said: “I don't know if he managed to leave that concentration camp, because refugee camps, many of them, are of concentration (type) because of the great number of people left there inside them”.

Soon afterwards, the American Jewish Committee (AJC) urged the pontiff ”to reconsider his regrettable choice of words“.

”The conditions in which migrants are currently living in some European countries may well be difficult, and deserve still greater international attention, but concentration camps they certainly are not,“ David Harris, the head of the AJC, said in a statement.

”The Nazis and their allies erected and used concentration camps for slave labour and the extermination of millions of people during World War II. There is no comparison to the magnitude of that tragedy.

“We respectfully urge the pope to reconsider his regrettable choice of words. Precision of language and facts is absolutely essential when making any historical reference, all the more so when coming from such a prominent and admired world figure.”

Adolf Hitler’s Nazi Germany maintained concentration camps across the territories it controlled before and during World War II. The camps were utilised to incarcerate, torture and kill so-called “racially undesirable elements” of German society, such as Jews, criminals, homosexuals, and Romani, and political opponents.</s>Europe is confining refugees in detention centres that resemble Nazi concentration camps, and is committing “suicide” as its seals its borders against immigration, Pope Francis said Saturday.

Francis led a special service on Tiber Island in central Rome, called to commemorate modern-day Christian martyrs. In his homily, he veered off his scripted text to recall a meeting with a refugee during last year’s visit to a camp on the Greek island of Lesbos.

“I don’t know if that man is still in Lesbos or if he has managed to go somewhere else, I don’t know if he was able to leave that concentration camp, because many refugee camps are concentration camps due to overcrowding,” Francis said.

In a likely reference to the Dublin rules, according to which refugees should stay in the first EU country of arrival, and a deal between the EU and Turkey to slow migration through the Balkan route, the pope criticized “international agreements [that] seem more important than human rights.”

The pope led the proceedings in St Bartholomew Basilica wearing a crimson stola that once belonged to Ragheed Aziz Ganni, a Chaldean priest killed in Mosul, Iraq, in 2007. Francis called martyrs “the living blood of the Church.”

After the service, the pope met a group of refugees airlifted out of Lebanon under a Christian-sponsored “humanitarian corridors” project, and gave a brief open-air address to crowds in which he decried Europe’s falling birthrate and its refusal to let in new migrants.

“This is called suicide,” he said.

He praised the “generosity” of people in migrant landing spots like Italy’s Lampedusa and Lesbos, and hoped this “could rub off a little on the north.”

Before Francis’ homily, friends and relatives of slain Christians – including the sister of Father Jacques Hamel, an 86-year-old French priest killed last year in an Islamist attack – spoke before a packed congregation.

The service was held in the run up to Francis’ April 28-29 visit to Egypt, a country where Christians are under threat. Earlier this month, at least 45 people were killed following an attack on two Coptic Churches claimed by the Islamic State terror militia.</s>Pope Francis on Saturday comforted the sister of an elderly French priest who was slain by Islamic militants in a church in Normandy as the pontiff paid tribute with a special prayer service to the courage of 20th- and 21st- century Christian martyrs.

Francis gripped the hands of Roselyne Hamel, whose brother, Rev. Jacques Hamel, 85, died when his throat was slit as he celebrated Mass on July 26, 2016.

He quietly spoke with her during the evening service in St. Bartholomew Basilica on Tiberina Island in Rome. He had just heard her tell fellow faithful in the church that her brother was killed by "two youths radicalized by a discourse of hate."

Francis said the legacy of modern-day martyrs "teaches us that with the strength of love, meekness, one can combat arrogance, violence, war, and with patience, achieve peace."

Next week Francis makes a two-trip pilgrimage to Egypt, a predominantly Muslim Arab nation where on April 9, on the Christian holy day of Palm Sunday, twin suicide bombings of Coptic churches killed 44 people.

In Saturday's service, Francis prayed that "persecuted Christians are protected and that peace soon comes to the world."

Departing from his prepared homily, Francis recounted how he was touched when last year, during a visit to a migrant detention facility in Lesbos, Greece, a Muslim father of three told him that his Christian wife had her throat slit when 'terrorists came ... and asked what our religion was.'"

Francis said the widower told him his wife was killed in front of him when she refused to toss away the cross she was wearing.

"She is looking down at us from heaven," the pope added.</s>Pope Francis urged governments on Saturday to get migrants and refugees out of holding centres, saying many had become "concentration camps".

During a visit to a Rome basilica, where he met migrants, Francis told of his visit to a camp on the Greek island of Lesbos last year.

There he met a Muslim refugee from the Middle East who told him how "terrorists came to our country". Islamists had slit the throat of the man's Christian wife because she refused to throw her crucifix the ground.

"I don't know if he managed to leave that concentration camp, because refugee camps, many of them, are of concentration (type) because of the great number of people left there inside them," the pope said.</s>ROME (AFP) - Pope Francis on Saturday (April 22) described some of Europe's refugee centres as "concentration camps", as he paid tribute to an unknown Christian woman slain for her faith in front of her Muslim husband.

"These refugee camps - so many are concentration camps, crowded with people... because international accords seem more important than human rights," Francis said in impromptu remarks at a ceremony in memory of modern-day Christian martyrs.

Departing from his prepared script and appearing unusually emotional as he spoke, the 80-year-old pontiff said he wanted the woman to be remembered along with all the other martyrs commemorated in Rome's Basilica of St Bartholomew.

He revealed that he had met the woman's husband and their three children during his visit to a refugee camp on the Greek island of Lesbos last year.

"I do not know what happened to him, if he managed to get out of his concentration camp, and get to somewhere else" Francis said.

"He looked at me and said 'Father, I am a Muslim and my wife was a Christian. In our country we were terrorised... they saw her crucifix and they asked her to throw it away.

"When she refused they cut her throat in front of my eyes. We loved each other so much."

Francis did not reveal the man's nationality but most of the migrants in Lesbos at the time of his visit were refugees from the conflict in Syria and he returned to Rome with three families who had fled the conflict there.

They have since begun new lives in Rome and the pope met Saturday with other refugees brought to Europe by legal routes under the auspices of the Sant'Egidio community.

He told them all that Europe needed to be infected by the generous spirit towards migrants that has been shown by the people of Lesbos and the Italian islands of Lampedusa and Sicily.

"We live in a civilisation that is not having children, but also closes its door to migrants: this is called suicide," he said.

"Let us think about the cruelty afflicting so many people, about the exploitation of those arriving on boats.

"Italy and Greece are providing a welcome but then international agreements mean they cannot move on."

Francis also upbraided the growing number of Italian politicians claiming the country cannot cope with an influx which has seen over half a million migrants arrive on its territory in the last three years.

"If every municipality in Italy took in just two migrants there would be a place for everyone," he said.

Saturday's service at the Basilica located on an island in the Tiber river that separates most of Rome from the Vatican, was also addressed movingly by Roselyne Hamel.

She is the sister of Jacques Hamel, the 85-year-old priest murdered by Islamic militants last year as he was celebrating mass in his church in Normandy in northern France.

"At his age, Jacques was frail but he was strong in his faith in Christ, strong in his love for the Gospel," Roselyne Hamel said.

Describing her sibling as "a universal brother," she said she was certain his love for humanity would even have extended to his killers.

Other speakers included Francisco Hernandez, a friend of William Quijano, an organiser of "Schools for Peace" in El Salvador and a victim of gang violence in 2009, and Karl Schneider, son of Paul Schneider, a protestant pastor who died in the Nazi death camp at Buchenwald.

The Basilica where Saturday's service took place is home to a large collection of relics of Christian martyrs across the ages, including recently added momentoes of Schneider, Quijano and Hamel.</s>ROME — Pope Francis on Saturday comforted the sister of an elderly French priest who was slain by Islamic militants in a church in Normandy as the pontiff paid tribute with a special prayer service to the courage of 20th- and 21st- century Christian martyrs.

Francis gripped the hands of Roselyne Hamel, whose brother, Rev. Jacques Hamel, 85, died when his throat was slit as he celebrated Mass on July 26, 2016.

He quietly spoke with her during the evening service in St. Bartholomew Basilica on Tiberina Island in Rome. He had just heard her tell fellow faithful in the church that her brother was killed by "two youths radicalized by a discourse of hate."

Francis said the legacy of modern-day martyrs "teaches us that with the strength of love, meekness, one can combat arrogance, violence, war, and with patience, achieve peace."

Next week Francis makes a two-trip pilgrimage to Egypt, a predominantly Muslim Arab nation where on April 9, on the Christian holy day of Palm Sunday, twin suicide bombings of Coptic churches killed 44 people.

In Saturday's service, Francis prayed that "persecuted Christians are protected and that peace soon comes to the world."

Departing from his prepared homily, Francis recounted how he was touched when last year, during a visit to a migrant detention facility in Lesbos, Greece, a Muslim father of three told him that his Christian wife had her throat slit when 'terrorists came ... and asked what our religion was.'"

Francis said the widower told him his wife was killed in front of him when she refused to toss away the cross she was wearing.

"She is looking down at us from heaven," the pope added.

Francis took some of the Lesbos refugees with him aboard his plane back to Italy.

In his homily Saturday, Francis also hailed the suffering of refugees, who are kept in detention facilities, lamenting that "international accords seem more important than human rights."

He praised Italians and Greeks for welcoming tens of thousands of refugees and migrants rescued at sea. He said he hopes the same generous spirit will "infect" other countries in Europe who have been resistant to taking in the refugees.

During the service, the names of some of those who died for their faith were read aloud. They included an Italian priest, the Rev. Giuseppe Puglisi, who spoke out against the Sicilian Mafia and was slain by hit men in Palermoy in 1993.

Among those who received tributes was Paul Schneider, a Reformed Church pastor killed in the Nazis' Buchenwald concentration camp in July 1939, shortly before the outbreak of World War II.

The pastor's son, Karl A. Schneider, spoke to Saturday's gathering, saying the church "has the task of being vigilant about the state." He said his father was killed because he wanted to ensure "the German people kept a Christian orientation in the state and society."
Pope Francis, while honoring Christians killed under Nazism, communism, dictatorships, and terrorism at Rome's Basilica of St. Bartholomew, adds to those named the wife of a Muslim he met in Lesbos, Greece, who was killed by terrorists because she wouldn't throw down her crucifix. Francis referred to the Lesbos camp as a 'concentration camp' noting, despite the good will of local communities, many refugee camps are overcrowded and little more than prisons.