Mexico City, Mexico, Nov 28, 2005 / 22:00 pm
During a veneration ceremony of the martyrs of Leon, who were beatified last week in Mexico, Bishop Jose Guadalupe Martin Rabago said, “There is no authentic Christian who does not have the vocation to martyrdom,” and this is “inseparable from authentic Christianity.”
The new blessed are Fathers Andres Sola and Jose Trinidad Rangel, and a lay Catholic Leonardo Perez.
While presiding at the ceremony at the Church of Mary the Queen, located at the foot of Christ the King Mountain, Bishop Martin Rabago said the martyrs of San Joaquin “were called to a vocation of martyrdom, and we can tend to think that we don’t have that same vocation. I would be so bold as to say that every authentic Christian has the vocation to martyrdom; we could say that it is inseparable from authentic Christianity.”
“This is testimony that the different vocations to which God calls us are all vocations that culminate and in the end lead to the encounter of holiness with the Lord,” he added.
The bishop also emphasized that holiness is not just for priests, but rather it is “the vocation of all those who have received the sacrament of Baptism.”