(LifeSiteNews) — Attacks on Catholics in Europe and Latin America are increasingly common and tolerated, two major recent reports found.
According to a 2024 report by the Observatory on Intolerance and Discrimination against Christians in Europe (OIDAC), 2,444 hate crimes targeting Christians were recorded in 35 European countries in 2023. Almost half of these attacks occurred in France, with anti-Christian crimes also significantly increasing in the U.K. and Germany. The attacks ranged from harassment and threats to physical violence.
“In addition to violent attacks, OIDAC Europe’s report also found discrimination against Christians in the workplace and in public life in some European countries, leading to increasing self-censorship among Christians in Europe,” OIDAC writes.
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OIDAC also mentions the “bans on religious processions to the targeting of Christians for the peaceful expression of their religious beliefs,” like the so-called “buffer zone” laws in the U.K. in front of abortion facilities.
The evidence for increasing violence against Catholics and other Christians was corroborated by the 2023 report of the Pontifical Foundation Aid to the Church in Need.
In the executive summary of the report, the authors warn of a “considerable increase” in attacks against Christians, which “have largely focused on members of religious communities (i.e., Catholics and evangelicals) and have generally been committed by members of pro-abortion and pro-feminist groups, as well as by groups that promote gender ideology.”
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“In Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Guatemala, Haiti, and Mexico, incidents (in several cases, crimes) have been reported, including attacks on religious persons, acts of vandalism, desecration, or offenses against religious sentiments,” the report states.
Polonia Castellanos, president of a Spanish Christian lawyer group, said: “When Catholics and Christians in general are attacked and humiliated, nothing happens, but if it were done to another group, the consequences would be immediate.”
“I think the reason is partly our fault,” she noted, because Catholics “have allowed ourselves to be humiliated and insulted without doing anything, and that’s why we’ve reached these extremes that are beginning to be dangerous.”
The Spanish-language news partner of CAN, ACI Prensa, named the infamous LGBT-themed parody of the Last Supper during the 2024 Olympic Games in Paris as an example of public offense against Christians.
ACI Prensa quoted Marcial Padilla from the Mexican Organization ConParticipación (Awareness and Participation), who laments that “historically, there has been a desire on the part of political and ideological groups to reeducate society to eliminate the presence of Catholicism, whether in education, customs, art, or any trace of laws inspired by the principles of the Christian faith.”
Padilla said secularism is “expressed as tolerance of mockery of the faith but intolerance toward expressions of faith. Put another way: In the name of freedom of expression, the Catholic faith can be ridiculed, but in the name of the secular nature of the state, it cannot be freely expressed or celebrated in community.”
Increasing attack on Catholics by left-wing ideologues in Europe
Father Juan Manuel Góngora from the Spanish diocese of Almeria, who has over 82,000 followers on X, said that “we are living in adverse times, and an example of this is the growing number of Eucharistic desecrations in various parishes and anti-Christian violence.”
“The social engineering we have been suffering for decades has gradually increased [tolerance of offenses]. And since the Spanish Socialist Workers’ Party came to power in 2018 and [prime minister] Pedro Sánchez took office, a series of laws that are completely harmful to the Catholic faith and anthropology are being implemented, such as the application of laws on historical memory, abortion, and euthanasia.”
Góngora criticized “the attempt by the government and its parliamentary partners to eliminate the crime against religious sentiments, protected by Article 16 of the Spanish Constitution and included in the penal code (Articles 522-526).”
The laws “are generally serving to ensure that these attacks and power strategies are not silenced and hidden,” according to the Spanish priest.
“Meanwhile, the vast majority of the media, fueled by institutional advertising and along with a constellation of associations affiliated with the progressive left, are necessary collaborators in implanting narratives and stories along secularist and anti-Christian lines,” he added.
Polonia Castellanos warned that the current situation in Spain and the rest of Europe is “very worrying and dangerous; attacks against Christians are increasing not only in number but also in intensity.”
“Europe, which was built on Christian roots, is forgetting its identity and persecuting Christians and imposing anti-Christian ideologies,” she stated.
“What’s even more alarming is that many crimes are committed by public officials. So what we see is that not only is the crime not prosecuted (because we already know that in Spain the law is not equal for everyone), but we are paying with our taxes for people or individuals who dedicate themselves to insulting us, when they should be the first to respect all citizens.”
“Despite everything, we must be aware of our victory (although action will be necessary),” she emphasized. “Spain is the land of Mary, and I am sure that all the struggle in defense of life (from conception to its natural end), the family, and religious freedom will bear fruit very soon.”
Catholics must pray and know their faith even better
The president of the St. Thomas More Center for Legal Studies in Peru, Alberto Gonzalez Caceres, said that for the majority of the population, freedom to practice one religion seems irrelevant “because religion has become an almost secondary cultural manifestation, except when people are living in dire straits, as in the case of Nicaragua, or when there are calamities.”
“I say this with great sadness,” he added.
“Now, for people who truly practice their faith, it’s overwhelming to realize that there is strong media censorship against all forms of religious practice, just as there is social stigmatization against anything orthodox.”
According to Gonzalez, Catholics should respond in “two concrete ways.”
“The first is by praying a lot, and the second is by educating themselves in the catechism and Catholic doctrine.”
He added that Catholics cannot expect any protection from state authorities. “The results will depend on actions taken by Catholics themselves,” he stressed.