New report notes 'significant rise' in 'personal attacks' on Christians in Europe

(OSV News) -- In its 2025 report, the Vienna-based Observatory on Intolerance and Discrimination against Christians, or OIDAC, noted "a significant rise in personal attacks" against Christians in 2024.

The OIDAC Europe Report 2025, which was published Nov. 17, identified 2,211 anti-Christian hate crimes in 2024, a slight decrease from the 2,444 incidents recorded last year.

However, personal attacks against Christians increased to 274, up from 232 in last year's report. It also noted a "sharp spike in arson attacks targeting churches and other Christian sites."

According to OIDAC Europe's findings, most anti-Christian hate crimes were recorded in France, the United Kingdom, Germany, Spain and Austria.

Among the most notable crimes was the killing of a 76-year-old monk during an attack at the Monastery of Santo Espíritu del Monte in Gilet, Spain; a man shot dead in January 2024 by Islamic State militants while attending Sunday Mass in Istanbul; and the near-destruction of a Catholic Church in Saint-Omer, France, by arson.

The report also documented 516 anti-Christian hate crimes; however, when "theft and break-ins at religious sites are included, the figure rises to 1,503."

"Alarmingly, 94 arson attacks were recorded -- almost double the previous year's total. One-third (33) of these occurred in Germany, where the Bishops' Conference recently warned that 'all taboos have been broken' regarding church vandalism," the OIDAC said.

The report also highlighted restrictions against Christians, particularly individuals prosecuted for silent prayer near abortion facilities, including the case of Adam Smith-Connor, a U.K. army veteran convicted in 2024 and ordered to pay 9,000 British pounds (US $11,700) for praying in silence within a buffer zone around an abortion clinic.

Noting the rise in attacks against Christians, the Commission of the Bishops' Conferences of the European Union, known as COMECE, called on the EU to appoint a coordinator on combating anti-Christian hatred in Europe, similar to coordinators afforded to Jews and Muslims on the continent.

"We consider that the time is mature for this step, while not questioning the specificity of Jewish and Muslim communities, which are already covered by similar coordinators. It is not a question of victimism, but equal access to tools of protection," Alessandro Calcagno, COMECE adviser for fundamental rights, said Dec. 4.

According to Father Manuel Barrios Prieto, COMECE general secretary, the call for an EU coordinator for combating anti-Christian hatred was met with "surprise."

"There was a reaction at the beginning of surprise that we asked this because if one sees it from outside, one says that Christianity is the majority religion in the European Union, so there's not really this problem," Father Barrios Prieto told OSV News Nov. 12.

"But we know that this problem exists. So the first reaction was surprise. But we haven't felt, at the moment, that there is a strong opposition to this request. We haven't perceived that," he said.

However, he noted that there is a mentality that questions the appointment of such a coordinator because Christians are not a minority group and expressed doubts that the EU would be quick in appointing one because "it is not seen as a priority."

While physical violence against Christians has been on the rise, there is also an increasing rise in alleged anti-Christian bias or discrimination in what Pope Francis described in 2016 as a "polite persecution" that is "disguised as culture, disguised as modernity, disguised as progress."

The OIDAC Europe Report also highlighted cases of "legal and social restrictions" affecting Christians in Europe, including that of Finnish politician Päivi Räsänen.

In Finland, prosecutors have taken their case against Räsänen, who was acquitted of hate crimes, to the country's Supreme Court, sparking concerns that expressing long-held religious beliefs or church teachings is subject to persecution.

The Finnish politician was first charged in 2021 with incitement against a minority/ethnic group over the 2004 publication of a booklet she wrote titled "Male and Female He Created Them," and published by the Luther Foundation, an organization of the Evangelical Lutheran Mission Diocese. Bishop Juhana Pohjola was charged along with Räsänen for his role as publisher.

The parliamentarian was also accused of hate speech over a tweet in which she criticized the Evangelical Lutheran Church's participation in the 2019 Pride events and questioned how the "church's doctrinal foundation, the Bible, fit in with shame and sin being elevated to a source of pride."

In March 2022, the Helsinki District Court dismissed the charges against Räsänen and Bishop Pohjola, declaring that it was "not the role of the district court to interpret biblical concepts."

Prosecutors sought to overturn the ruling in 2023. However, the Helsinki Court of Appeals upheld the court's decision, prompting prosecutors to take their case to the Supreme Court.

In a statement to OSV News Nov. 5, Anja Tang, director of OIDAC, said the case against Räsänen illustrated "a growing concern across Europe."

"Increasingly broad or vaguely defined laws against 'hate speech,' 'discrimination,' and similar offenses are being used to prosecute individuals who peacefully express their religious convictions on moral issues," Tang said.

Tang told OSV News that Räsänen's case is indicative of a pattern that "threatens to erode religious freedom and other fundamental rights, and create a chilling effect that discourages open debate."

"Ultimately, this trend risks silencing voices that uphold historic Christian teachings on morality in the public sphere," she said.

In the United Kingdom, the University of Sheffield reportedly added a trigger warning for literature students on parts of the Bible, including the Gospel accounts of Christ's crucifixion and the story of Cain and Abel in the Book of Genesis, saying that the biblical accounts contained "graphic bodily injury and sexual violence."

Backlash to the trigger warning, which was revealed by the U.K.'s Daily Mail following a Freedom of Information request, prompted a statement from the university saying the warning was "a content note (and) is a standard academic tool used to signpost when sensitive or graphic content will be discussed."

For Father Barrios Prieto, such cases are often due to a mentality that "Christians are not inclusive."

"Just yesterday, I read a report from the Federation of Catholic Associations in Europe that has complained that when applying for EU funds, they are discriminated against ideologically for not being inclusive," he told OSV News.

"I wouldn't define it as persecution, but maybe as a 'polite discrimination' that is happening," Father Barrios Prieto added.

Father Barrios Prieto told OSV News that Christians, especially those in Europe, are called to do all that is possible to be witnesses to their beliefs without "fear of losing our jobs or not being promoted in our careers, or put aside or neglected.

"I think this is a fight we all have to do in Europe. It's a cultural fight," he said.