Dearest Brothers and Sisters,
With a keen sense of participation, I unite with you as you gather around the altar to celebrate, in the sacrifice of Christ, the memory of your seven confreres of the monastery of Our Lady of Atlas, at Tibhirine, in Algeria, who were killed in a barbaric manner last May. With this message I wish to express my spiritual nearness to you and my solidarity, along with a special remembrance in my prayers. "If the grain of wheat falling to the ground does not die, it remains alone; if instead it dies, it produces much fruit. He who loves his life will lose it, while he who hates his life in this world, will keep it for eternal life. If someone wishes to serve me let him follow me, and where I am there also will my servant be. If anyone serves me, the Father will honor him." (John 12:24-26)
How pertinent are these words of the Gospel! How appropriate they sound, as we think of your seven confreres and of your present Capitular meetings, which are taking place in the light of their witness! The Lord alone can comfort his children in such dramatic trials. Faith in Christ, crucified and risen, tears aware the veil of suffering and makes us understand the mysterious fecundity of the death of believers, whose life is not taken away but transformed. I am certain that the sacrifice of the monks of Tibhirine has not failed to provide special inspiration for your Capitular labors, enabling each of your to meet with full openness of Spirit the two great challenges which face you: that of a renewed fidelity to the radical following of Christ, and that of communion within the great Cistercian Family. Be certain of this: the blood of martyrs is in the Church a force for renewal and of unity.
"At the end of the second millennium, the Church has become once again a Church of martyrs." (Tertio millennio adveniente, n. 37) The witness of the Trappists of Our Lady of Atlas takes its place alongside that of the Bishop of Oran, His Excellency Pierre Lucien Caverie, and of not a few other sons and daughters on the African continent who, during this period, have given their lives for the Lord and for their brothers and sisters, beginning with those who persecuted and killed them. Their witness is the victory of the Cross, the victory of the merciful love of God, who saves the world. The testament which Dom Christian de Chergé left behind, offered to all the key for understanding the tragic occurrence in which he and his confreres were involved, the final meaning of which is the gift of life in Christ. "My life," he wrote, "was given to God and to this country."
Venerable brothers and sisters, you are the custodians of this memory, guardians in prayer, in common discernment, and in the concrete directives which you decide upon, so that the memory of this event be fruitful in the future for Trappists and for the whole Church. In this rich promise of hope, we invoke the abundance of the gifts of the Holy Spirit on each of you and on the works of your respective Chapters, and we impart to you with all our heart the Apostolic Benediction.
From the "A. Gemelli" hospital, October 10, 1996
John Paul II