Wednesday, April 16, 2025
6:00 pm EDT - 7:45 pm EDT
Catholic Information Center
1501 K Street NW
Washington,
DC
20005
United States
Description
The CIC is pleased to invite you to the launch of Robert Royal’s new book, The Martyrs of the New Millennium, on Wednesday, April 16, 2025 at 6:00 PM EDT. The program will be offered both in-person and virtually through a YouTube livestream.
This book is the thundering voice of the martyrs of our time. Though mostly overlooked, the harrowing stories of hundreds of thousands of fellow Christians from around the world who gave their lives for the Faith in recent years — including in full-scale genocides of Christians in several countries — are a part of our history crying out to be told. Here is that history.
Dr. Royal chronicles the heartrending stories of heroic priests, religious, and laypeople who are being brutally persecuted, tortured, and martyred today by various groups, including Islamists, criminal gangs, political extremists, and satanic cults. He reveals how thousands more are right now living courageously under oppressive regimes facing similar threats and dangers daily.
These are our brothers and sisters in the Faith, the saints in our midst! You will learn about them, the role spiritual combat plays in their persecution, and how you can help alleviate their suffering. While doing so you will also discover:
- How the early Christian martyrs provided one of the first “books of spirituality”
- The true definition of a Christian martyr and five criteria to be considered a martyr
- Teachings of recent popes on the new martyrdom, including oblatio vitae
- How “blasphemy laws” are misconstrued to accuse and condemn Christians unjustly
- The most dangerous place to be a Catholic priest (You will be shocked!)
- The country where nine out of ten Christians martyrs worldwide are killed
- The tremendous sufferings of “white martyrs” and red martyrs
In these gripping pages, you will also see how even Christians who aren’t martyrs by definition continue to be powerful witnesses amid the most dire circumstances, proclaiming the true Faith and radiating God’s light in the face of the most diabolical cruelty.
This watershed work gives Tertullian’s famous words “the blood of martyrs is the seed of the Church” an entirely new meaning.
April 16th Schedule:
- 5:40 PM: Registrant check-in begins.
- 6:00-7:00 PM: “The Martyrs of the New Millennium” presentation (this portion will be live-streamed)
- 7:00-8:00 PM: Book signing and light happy hour
- 7:45 PM: Conclusion
Dr. Royal’s book will be available for purchase at the CIC’s bookstore.
RSVP today to join us in-person or through the livestream for this event!
What people are saying
“Today, in many parts of the world, Christians are the most cruelly persecuted community of faith. Particularly in countries with a Christian tradition, Christians are socially discriminated against, professionally disadvantaged, and even legally persecuted and imprisoned because of their commitment to the unconditional dignity of man as an image of God. Therefore, the careful documentation of the modern global persecution of Christians that Robert Royal presents here is not just historical information. Rather, he shows the truth of faith in Christ, which is revealed in His disciples’ courageous confession of Him right up to the final consequences of following the mocked, tortured, and crucified Son of God.”
Cardinal Gerhard Müller
Former Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith
“With this compelling and moving book, Robert Royal continues his noble work as a witness to the witnesses: the martyrs who lived their Christian faith to the limits of love by following Christ through death into eternal life and imperishable glory. The Martyrs of the New Millennium is essential historical reading and rich spiritual fare.”
George Weigel
Distinguished Senior Fellow, Ethics and Public Policy Center
“In this important and timely book, Robert Royal has not only completed the work begun in his magisterial work, The Catholic Martyrs of the Twentieth Century, but has also addressed a terrible gap in the world’s and the Church’s attention—the intense persecution of the Church in the first quarter of the twenty-first century. The lack of knowledge, and even lack of interest, in the persecution of Christians within the Church will not be excusable after reading Royal’s book. It should be on the desk of every bishop in the Western world.”
Fr. Benedict Kiely
Founder, Nasarean.org
“Many hoped that the collapse of the Soviet Union meant the end of communism and its victims. Robert Royal knows better and chronicles the ongoing sacrifices and deaths of those who dare to profess the faith in North Korea, Vietnam, Laos, and Cuba, as well as Nicaragua and Venezuela. His focus on Communist China is both up-to-date and indispensable. Martyrs of the New Millennium is a powerful reminder of communism’s crimes—and the power of spiritual witness.”
Elizabeth Spalding
Chairman, Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation
About the Speaker
Robert Royal is the founder and president of the Faith & Reason Institute in Washington, D.C. and editor-in-chief of The Catholic Thing. He holds a B.A. and M.A. from Brown University and a Ph.D. in Comparative Literature from the Catholic University of America. His most recent books are Columbus and the Crisis of the West and A Deeper Vision: The Catholic Intellectual Tradition in the Twentieth Century.
