December 28th - As early as the second century, the Church admitted the date of December 28th to commemorate the innocent children killed by Herod out of rage, because the birth of a child who would take the throne and reign was announced to him.

According to the Gospel of St. Matthew 2, 13-18, when the Magi did not return to tell Herod where the newly born King of the Jews was, Herod ordered to kill all the children under two years of age in and around Bethlehem because he hoped that Jesus was one of them. Joseph and Mary had already taken Jesus to Egypt.

In the rite, these children are called innocent and are considered martyrs killed for Christ. They are docile and unprotected, like the lamb that was to be slaughtered, described in Isaiah 53,7 and Acts 8, 32. Today, many children are mistreated and their human dignity is threatened, their rights and lives are violated, not to mention the foetuses still in the womb, not even having been able to see a ray of light and already brutally torn from life. It is a heinous crime, yet there are laws that allow abortion to be tolerated and allowed. It is for these reasons that the Church urges Christians to fight and oppose such violence, and also encourages respect for the dignity of life; to practice charity to support pregnant women, to adopt orphans and abandoned children and to improve their education.