Vatican, 20 November, 2023 / 8:30 pm (ACI Africa).
At Sunday’s Angelus, Pope Francis called for applause for the 20 martyrs beatified in the Seville cathedral, priests and laypeople who were murdered out of hatred for the faith during the beginning of the Spanish Civil War in 1936.
“Yesterday in Seville, Manuel González Serna, a diocesan priest, and 19 fellow priests and laymen murdered in 1936 in the climate of religious persecution of the Spanish Civil War were beatified,” said the Holy Father after praying the Angelus on Sunday at the Vatican.
“These martyrs bore witness to Christ to the end. May their example strengthen so many Christians who in our time are discriminated against for their faith. “Applause for the new blesseds!” Pope Francis exclaimed.
Cardinal Marcello Semeraro, prefect of the Dicastery for the Causes of Saints, offered the Nov. 18 beatification Mass of the 20 martyrs: 10 priests, one seminarian, and nine laity — eight men and one woman.
According to the Archdiocese of Seville, they were murdered “after being arrested and without prior trial in the climate of persecution of anyone who professed to be a member of the Catholic Church.”
