CHURCH TO NAME 10,000 NEW 20TH-CENTURY MARTYRS

VATICAN (CWNews.com) -- More than 10,000 Christians who died for their faith during the 20th century will be named in a volume prepared by the Commission for New Martyrs. The listing is expected to be complete by October or November of this year.

The listing of 20th-century martyrs, which has been under way since 1995, is a response to the request by Pope John Paul II. The Commission compiling that list is headed by Archbishop Michel Hrynchyshyn, the Ukrainian Catholic exarch of France.

The final product of the Commission will be an enormous work of 15 to 20 volumes, with 1 or 2 pages consecrated to each of the Christians who "shed their blood for Christ and for evangelical causes," Archbishop Hrynchyshyn said. He said that these martyrs would not necessarily be beatified.

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