"In the end, martyrdom, suffering for truth, is successful and more effective than the violence of totalitarian regimes": Benedict XVI said that today, during Wednesday’s catechesis. He was inspired by the figure and the thought of Tertullian, one of the first Fathers of the Church, who lived in Carthage between the end of the second century and the beginning of the third. He started theology in Latin. The participants in the general hearing in St. Peter’s Square were over 32,000. Tertullian converted to Christianity because he was attracted by the examples of Christian martyrs. "However, an excessively individual search for truth, together with the intemperance of his character, gradually led him to leave the communion with the Church". His writings, went on the Holy Father, "manifested two main purposes: confuting the very serious accusations which the pagans made against the new religion", and "communicating the message of the Gospel, dialoguing with the culture of the time". In one of those writings, for instance, he denounced: "the unfair behaviour of the political authorities towards the Church; he explained and defended the teachings and the custums of the Christians; he identified the differences between the new religion and the most important philosophical movements of the time; he manifested the triumph of the Spirit, opposing the blood of the martyrs to the violence of the persecutors". (To be continued)
