According to a new report by a non-governmental human rights organisation monitoring intolerance and discrimination against Christians in Europe (OIDAC; headquartered in Vienna, Austria), in 2023 in 35 European countries there were…

Most of the incidents are acts of vandalism against churches (62% of the total), desecration of Christian holy places (24%), arson (10%), threats (8%) and physical violence (7%).

The report singles out the following flagrant cases: an attack with a machete by a Moroccan national on clergy and parishioners of two Catholic churches in the Spanish city of Algeciras, in which one church worker was killed; an incident in which a car ploughed into a procession marking the popular folk-Christian feast of Corpus Christi in Poland (Boże Ciało; celebrated by Catholics on the first Thursday after Trinity Sunday); and the attempted murder of a former Muslim who had converted to Christianity in Great Britain.

This dismal ranking is headed by France, where about 1,000 crimes against Christians were recorded last year (I have already written about one such crime); in second place is Great Britain, with more than 700 such incidents; and in third place Germany, where the number of such crimes rose from 135 in 2022 to 277 in 2023, that is, by 105%. The Greek Orthodox Church, too, faced a record number of attacks in 2023.

The report expresses concern over discrimination against Christians in the workplace and in public life in some European countries. In particular, it cites the results of a 2024 study by the Christian charitable and human rights organisation Voice for Justice UK, which showed that only a third (36%) of Christians in Great Britain under the age of 35 are not shy of expressing their views on various social issues at work.

The report is based on data submitted in 2023 by the governments of European countries to the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE), as well as on facts reported by civil society. According to OIDAC's executive director Ania Hoffmann, far more hate crimes against Christians were probably committed, since several countries, France among them, did not submit statistics to the OSCE in 2023.