The Talmud teaches that whosoever preserves one life, it is accounted to him by Scripture as if he had preserved a whole world. More than any other twentieth-century leader, Pius fulfilled this Talmudic dictum, when the fate of European Jewry was at stake. 

Asked what Catholics in the United States can do about the situation in Sudan, Bishop Macram answers quickly. "Jesus taught his disciples that this type of evil is only sent away by prayer and fasting.

Pakistans relatively small Christian community of 2 million, about 3 percent of the population (two-thirds of them Catholic), has been subjected to systematic repression and death.

As early as 1966, something unprecedented in Communist-dominated countries had occurred. There was a powerful element of independent civil society in Poland linked directly with the Church.

As World War II ended, Vietnam began to suffer the same types of persecution and martyrdoms that Communism brought to China and Korea. But at that very moment a spiritual story was unfolding that shows how grace operates even in the most terrible circumstances.

Albania is a small country that prides itself on its fierce national identity and long Christian history. But after the communist takeover 1946 tens of thousands of common people perished for religious reasons.

On Monday, March 24, 1980, at 6:25 p.m. in the chapel of the Divina Providencia Cancer Hospital, where he lived in a small house, Oscar Arnulfo Romero, archbishop of San Salvador, the capital of the Central American nation El Salvador, was killed during his homily by a gunman who fired one, well-placed bullet through his heart.

Bishop Romzha was only one of many brave believers who paid the ultimate price for their loyalty to the faith in Ukraine. As horrible as their experiences were, their commitment bore rich dividends.

A Father Jochmann was the prison chaplain in Berlin and spent some time with Jägerstätter that day.

The Nazis gave various reasons for imprisoning these clergymen: stirring up the masses, spying, aiding prisoners, suspicion of treason, behavior unfriendly to Germany, support of Jews, insulting the Fuhrer or National Socialism, or sometimes no reason at all.