Islam is Catholicism’s #1 enemy since the 7th Century. The wars between Catholics and Islam had raged for centuries. Many Catholics were killed by the Islamic savages. Pope Francis I canonizes hundreds of Italian Catholics who in 1480 refused to covert to Islam when Turks seized the city of Otranto.
(TheBlaze/AP) — Pope Francis on Sunday bestowed sainthood upon hundreds of 15th-century martyrs beheaded for refusing to convert to Islam as part of his first canonization ceremony in a packed St. Peter’s Square.
The “Martyrs of Otranto” were 813 Italians who were slain in the southern Italian city in 1480 for defying demands by Turkish invaders who overran the citadel to renounce Christianity.
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Francis told the crowd that the martyrs are a source of inspiration, especially for “so many Christians, who, right in these times and in so many parts of the world, still suffer violence.” He prayed that they receive “the courage of loyalty and to respond to evil with good.”
The pope didn’t single out any country. But Christian churches have been attacked in Nigeria and Iraq, and Catholics in China loyal to the Vatican have been subject to harassment and sometimes jail over the last decades.
I salute the Pope on this move and recognition of the current Islamic persecution of Christians.
