“Our travel and assembly restrictions do not prevent us from uniting in prayer,” said Benoit de Blanpré, director of ACN in France during this first Facebook Live of the Foundation. “A concrete way to meet in the Church and to remember that, despite the confinement, the Church remains universal,” he insisted. Over 1,900 people were geolocated on the five different continents. The map of these prayers is similar to that of the martyrs of 2019, murdered in different countries around the world (see below).

“Today as yesterday, priests, deacons, consecrated persons, faithful give their lives to the end out of love for the Lord and their brothers as true witnesses, true martyrs of faith and charity,” said Archbishop Rougé who was to preside over the Night of Witnesses last Friday. “The martyrs we remember today are with us during this time of trial. May their example and their intercession open the way to a renewal for the Gospel, ” he added. 

At the conclusion of this Facebook Live, the Foundation transmitted the moving message that Asia Bibi had specially recorded for this Night of Witnesses: “I would like to send you my warmest thanks. I know everyone has prayed for me and I believe that if I am here with you today it is thanks to the prayers of all of you. Thank you to all of you. Thank you for having these beautiful thoughts for me. I feel very grateful for it,” she says.

Every red dot corresponds to a place where a Christian has been killed for his faith and also the location from which people prayed for them.

Source: aed-france.org