We need to talk about ‘polite’ persecution of Christians in so-called tolerant societies

Detailed summary

Rite & Reason: The active persecution of Christians is real and significant, even if many ardent proponents of freedom prefer to look the other way

The appointment earlier this year of the Republic’s former EU commissioner Mairead McGuinness as Europe’s special envoy for the promotion of freedom of religion or belief brings a welcome focus on religious freedom as a fundamental but neglected right.

In Dublin this week, McGuinness, in her new role, will launch the latest Persecuted and Forgotten? report by the papal charity, Aid to the Church in Need. It is a stark reminder of the scale of the issues.

The report reveals that 413 million Christians live in countries where they are denied religious freedom, 220 million of whom – one in 10 of all Christians – are exposed to active, often violent persecution.

In the two years since the last report, persecution of Christians has intensified in more than half the countries assessed, with no country showing improvement.

Tasked by recent popes with particular responsibility for supporting Christians facing persecution, the thousands of projects supported by Aid to the Church in Need globally testify to the human face behind these statistics.

In northern Nigeria, a young man called Solomon Ako was abducted by militants and held neck-deep in cold water and told he would die unless he renounced his Christian faith. In Burkina Faso, 26 men in the Diocese of Nouna were killed, just because they were Christian. In Iran, arrests of Christians nearly doubled in a single year.

In Nicaragua, more than 300 priests, nuns and seminarians have been jailed or exiled while church institutions continue to be seized at whim. In China, unregistered churches are demolished, and Sunday school teachers and others continue to be arrested.

Across Africa and Asia, Christians are part of a mass exodus from the lands where they have been present for centuries.

While the mandate of the European Union special envoy emphasises religious freedom outside the union, various EU and related institutions are increasingly sounding the alarm about a similar problem within.

Opening of the article, excerpted from The Irish Times. To read the rest, open the article on the publisher's site.