A new report reveals that thousands of anti-Christian hate crimes occurred across Europe in 2024, with physical attacks on Christians rising sharply even as overall incidents declined slightly. The data, compiled by the Vienna-based Observatory on Intolerance and Discrimination against Christians in Europe (OIDAC), documents a troubling pattern of violence, intimidation, and legal persecution targeting Christians across the continent.
What does this surge in hostility toward Christianity reveal about Europe’s moral foundation?
OIDAC Europe’s 2025 report identified 2,211 anti-Christian hate crimes in 2024, down from 2,444 in 2023. But the decrease in total numbers masks a disturbing trend: personal attacks against Christians jumped from 232 to 274 incidents. Arson attacks nearly doubled, reaching 94 cases, with Germany accounting for one-third of these fires. When theft and break-ins at religious sites are included, the total rises to 1,503 incidents.
The attacks range from vandalism to murder. A 76-year-old monk was killed during an assault at the Monastery of Santo Espíritu del Monte in Gilet, Spain. An Islamic State gunman shot dead a worshipper attending Sunday Mass in Istanbul in January 2024. In France, arsonists nearly destroyed a Catholic church in Saint-Omer. Germany saw its anti-Christian hate crimes surge 105 percent from 2022 to 2023, jumping from 135 to 277 cases. The German Bishops’ Conference warned that “all taboos have been broken” regarding church vandalism.
France, the United Kingdom, Germany, Spain, and Austria recorded the highest number of incidents. France alone documented nearly 1,000 anti-Christian hate crimes in 2023, while the United Kingdom reported more than 700. Vandalism accounted for 50 percent of the violence, followed by arson attacks at 15 percent, acts of desecration at 13 percent, and physical assaults at 7.5 percent.
The violence occurs alongside legal restrictions that target Christians for expressing their beliefs. British army veteran Adam Smith-Connor was convicted in 2024 and ordered to pay 9,000 pounds for praying silently within a buffer zone around an abortion clinic. Finnish politician Päivi Räsänen faces prosecution at Finland’s Supreme Court for alleged hate speech after quoting biblical teaching on marriage in a 2019 tweet and publishing a booklet titled “Male and Female He Created Them.” The case has reached the Supreme Court despite two lower courts dismissing the charges and ruling that “it was not the role of the district court to interpret biblical concepts.”
The Bible speaks directly to the persecution of the righteous. “Many are the afflictions of the righteous, but the Lord delivers him from them all” (Psalms 34:20). The Sages understood this verse to mean that suffering comes to those who uphold God’s law precisely because they stand against the prevailing moral decay of their generation. The righteous face opposition not despite their virtue but because of it.
The report highlights what COMECE Deputy Secretary-General Alessandro Calcagno calls a pattern of discrimination rooted in anti-Christian stereotypes. The European Union has appointed special coordinators to combat antisemitism and Islamophobia, but has not created a similar position for anti-Christian hatred. “Ignoring this phenomenon is not an option anymore,” Calcagno stated at the report’s presentation in Brussels. MEP Bert-Jan Ruissen added, “We need a special coordinator on anti-Christian hatred; we need more data; we need a special envoy on freedom of religion or belief, and we need funding to tackle intolerance.”
OIDAC Director Anja Tang-Hoffman described the increasing use of hate speech and discrimination laws to prosecute Christians who peacefully express religious convictions on moral issues. “This trend risks silencing voices that uphold historic Christian teachings on morality in the public sphere,” she said. Father Manuel Barrios Prieto, COMECE general secretary, noted that Christians face discrimination when applying for EU funds because they are viewed as “not inclusive.” He characterized the situation as “polite discrimination” rather than outright persecution.
The University of Sheffield added trigger warnings for literature students studying parts of the Bible, including the Gospel accounts of the crucifixion and the story of Cain and Abel in Genesis, claiming the passages contained “graphic bodily injury and sexual violence.”
Europe once positioned itself as a defender of Christian rights abroad and a champion of religious liberty in emerging nations. The OIDAC data reveals that hostility toward Christians has become public, vocal, and common within Europe itself. The continent that built its civilization on Christian foundations now prosecutes believers for silent prayer, burns their churches, and kills their monks. The violence and legal persecution documented in the OIDAC report represent a moral collapse that calls into question Europe’s commitment to the religious freedom it claims to value.