Solidarity with the Persecuted Church

INTRODUCTION

A pressing Lenten intention could be the plight of persecuted Christians. Catholic and Protestant monitoring agencies report that 2025 has been the worst year for persecution.

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Lent returns each year as a privileged season of prayer, fasting, and almsgiving–not merely to discipline ourselves, but to attune our hearts to the suffering of our brothers and sisters. 

Too often, however, we understand conversion only in personal terms. Certainly, Lent calls each Christian to inner repentance, to turn away from sin and toward God. Yet conversion in the Gospel is never purely individual. It has a community and social dimension, as well. 

In our own religious community, we try to make this concrete: at the end of Lent, we calculate what we have saved through weekly fasting and send the amount to one of our missionaries abroad.

In the early Church, the communal aspect was evident. The sinner’s reconciliation was an ecclesial event: penances were visible, and the community accompanied the person toward repentance. Such practices no longer fit contemporary societies shaped by privacy and individualism; yet they remind us that sin wounds not only the soul but also the communion of persons. 

One beautiful present-day example is the “Fraternity Campaign” organized annually by the National Conference of Bishops of Brazil. Each Lent, it proposes a concrete social theme–hunger, ecology, education. This year, the focus is housing: improving conditions in favelas and defending the dignity of the marginalized through advocacy and social initiatives. 

A pressing Lenten intention could be the plight of persecuted Christians. Catholic and Protestant monitoring agencies report that 2025 has been the worst year for persecution, with the situation worsening in most countries.

In this issue of World Mission, we highlight the growing phenomenon of persecution against believers as a wake-up call. The Religious Freedom in the World Report from the pontifical foundation Aid to the Church in Need estimates that nearly two-thirds of humanity lives in areas where religious freedom is severely violated.

The causes differ. Authoritarian regimes increasingly restrict belief; in parts of Africa, jihadist violence devastates Christian communities; in India, ethnoreligious nationalism fosters hostility toward Christians and other minorities. Even new realities, such as organized criminal groups and technological surveillance, threaten believers.

Lent, then, invites us to widen our hearts. Prayer, fasting, and almsgiving are not private spiritual exercises but acts of participation in Christ’s love for the world. Our conversion leads us to solidarity with those who cannot live their faith freely and peacefully. 

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