Our liturgical recognition of the Coptic Martyrs," argues Fr Hugh Somerville Knapman OSB, "would offer an icon to the world of the heavenly communion that all who have died for Christ now share in Him."

In a video message for the “Day of Contemporary Martyrs” Feb. 15, the pope said, “I hold in my heart that baptism of blood, those twenty-one men baptized as Christians with water and the Spirit.”

A gifted preacher, prolific writer, talented musician, artist and photographer, he was serving as chaplain at Fisher House, the Catholic Chaplaincy for Cambridge University students, when he lost his battle with cancer on January 15th. His warmth, wit and wicked sense of humour made him the life and soul of every party, as well as an inspiration to young students and colleagues of all denominations.

For several decades, we have seen the barriers coming down and increasing cooperation and friendship between Catholics and Protestants. This did not begin with scholarly theological discussions and formal retractions of some of the anathemas used against each other in the past. It began in a more practical way. It began in the trenches of the pro-life movement where Catholics and Protestants found themselves together because of shared devotion to the sanctity of human life. It strengthened in the struggle to protect marriage and now in the struggle to defend religious liberty.

It’s the ecumenical dog that doesn’t bark. We need him to bark, but he rarely does, and then he's quickly shushed. It’s the matter of conversion. When we pray for Christian unity, as we do this week, we pray not only for kindness and fellow-feeling and some very foggy idea of joining together in the future, after a gradual convergence somewhere in the middle. We pray for our separated brethren to give in.

Pope Francis leads Catholics in joining Christians of all Churches and confessions worldwide in praying for an end to the coronavirus pandemic.

Pope Francis: 'May the Lord hear the united prayer of all of His disciples who are preparing themselves to celebrate the victory of the Risen Christ'

As a Catholic priest and former Evangelical, I support the statement from members of the World Evangelical Alliance