A man in Berlin-Neukölln was beaten and threatened with a knife because of his Christian tattoo. The 27-year-old Christian from Iraq was approached by two men and asked about his religious tattoo. They also and demanded that he give a donation to a beggar. When he refused, the men punched him in the face, according to police. When the attacker pulled out a knife, the victim and his companion escaped into a shop and called the police. The police arrested a 24-year old Muslim man. The investigation continues.
On the 12th February, the National Assembly in France adopted the new usage of the terms "Parent 1" and "Parent 2" instead of "Mother" and "Father" to reflect diversity in the families. The idea of the new law is to embrace diversity in familiar settings. The deputy Jennifer de Temmerman called the traditional social and family models outdated. This law was criticized by the minister of Education, the deputy Xavier Breton and the movement Manif Pour Tous, calling it "politically correct but not real".
During the night of February 11th, vandals spray painted the Church of San Martin with the words, "The only church that illuminates is the one that burns" ("La unica iglesia que ilumina es la que arde") along with an anarcho-feminist symbol.
"The church that illuminates is the one that burns" and other anarchist and feminist slogans and symbols were painted on two churches in small towns in Ávila. The Diocese of Ávila denounced the acts as attacks not only on the heritage of the small towns, but against mutual respect and religious freedom. A complaint was filed with the police.
In the late afternoon of February 10th, the priest of Saint-Nicolas de Maisons-Laffitte discovered that the church's tabernacle had been thrown to the ground. The police arrested a 35-year-old man who confessed.
On February 9th, the church of Notre-Dame de Dijon was desecrated by unidentified perpetrators. The tabernacle was opened, consecrated hosts were scattered, the altar cloth stained, and a missal was torn. A Mass of Reparation was held by the Archbishop.
Between February 6th and 8th, four churches in the Baden-Württemberg region were victims of theft from offertory boxes: two churches in Rheinhausen, a church in Sasbach, and a church in Wyhl. Police are investigating.
The local cemetery in Kamień Krajeński was devastated by vandals sometime between January 29th and February 6th. Nine tombstones were damaged, crosses were overturned, vases for flowers destroyed, and the arm of a statue of Christ was broken off the grave of a deceased priest. The priest of the local church said it was desecration of a place of worship. Police were alerted and began an investigation.
The prosecutor's office in Nîmes opened an investigation after severe desecration was discovered in the church of Notre-Dame des Enfants. A cross was drawn on a wall with excrement on which pieces of consecrated hosts were stuck. The tabernacle was broken and other consecrated hosts were destroyed.
On the evening of February 5th, a strong smell of smoke alerted the secretary of the parish of Lavaur to a fire in the cathedral. When the firefighters arrived, only the altar cloth and the crèche had been consumed, but a cross was on the ground, along with a broken candle. The arm of Christ on a cross had also been twisted.
A wooden crucifix located between Hèches and Avezac-Prat-Lahitte, in the municipality of Labastide, was discovered vandalized on February 5th. The perpetrators cut the cross one meter off the ground and left it there. When it fell, the Christ figure's arm was broken. The mayor ordered an investigation.
On January 29th, a Christ figure carrying a cross was thrown to the ground in the choir of the church of Saint-Nicolas. A few days later, on February 1st, the arms from the figure were broken. On February 4th, a statue of the Virgin and Child was attacked and shattered on the ground.
The tabernacle was broken and the ciborium containing consecrated hosts was stolen from the church of Saint-Pierre de Talmont (Vendée) on February 3rd.
Before Sunday Mass on February 3rd, it was discovered that someone had broken into the tabernacle in the chapel of Sainte-Anne in Notre-Dame-et-Saint Junien Church in Lusignan, scattered the hosts, and stolen the ciborium where the hosts were stored. The police were called and began an investigation.
Over the course of several months, statues have been pushed to the ground and broken into a thousand pieces, stones have been thrown at the stained glass windows, and the stoups and Christmas crèches have been damaged in two churches, Saint-Gilles and Sainte-Croix, in the parish of Saint-Gilles-Croix-de-Vie in the Vendée. Similar damage has occurred in the neighboring town of Saint-Hilaire-de-Riez.
The church "Am Heiligenhäuschen" was smeared with paint by unknown vandals late in the evening of February 2nd. Police are investigating.
The exterior wall of the colegio de la Trinidad in Vistalegre was painted with vulgar anti-church graffiti. This school, whose interior houses a chapel, belongs to the Diocesan Teaching Foundation of Santos Mártires de Córdoba.
Thieves broke into the Church of Madeleine in Vendôme and stole a wooden tabernacle containing a ciborium and consecrated hosts.
A 33-year-old Syrian man was arrested for the murder of his sister's lover, a 25-year-old Christian Iraqi. The prosecutor said the background of the crime may have been that the victim and accused belong to different religions and probable motive was that the accused, a Muslim, did not approve of his sister living with an "infidel."
West Midlands police investigated handwritten letters threatening petrol bomb attacks and mass stabbings sent to fifteen churches in the UK from November to January.
A public crucifix monument was vandalized with graffiti during the night of January 20-21 in Caen. Symbols included the anarchist "A," slogans in favor of PMA (assisted reproduction) legislation, "Jesus is trans," and a reference to an attack against a Christian pilgrimage tour bus two days earlier in Caen. Also present were stickers of the local libertarian communist union.
On the 14th of January, the Diocesan House of Grenoble hosted a pro-life event which drew a few hundred protesters. Between the 14th and 19th of January, graffiti was sprayed on the outer walls of the house and then between January 19th and 21st, its glass windows and doors were smashed.
Sometime between the 17th and 18th of January, the back wall of the Stephanuskirche was sprayed with graffiti by unknown persons.
A window in the back of the Evangelical church of St. Simeon in Minden was smashed during the night of January 17th by unknown perpetrators.
An unidentified perpetrator attacked the Greek Orthodox Church, damaging several windows and a glass ornament above the front door. Police opened an investigation
The church, whose frame was made of wood, was completely destroyed in a fire during the night of January 16th to 17th. When the firefighters arrived on site at 2:30 am, the church was already totally engulfed, and they could only prevent the flames from spreading to neighboring buildings. A hundred people had to be evacuated. The initial investigation indicated that the fire had started with a short circuit in the electrical system, however, an anarcho-libertarian blog post claimed responsibility. On October 7th, prosecutors said accelerants were found in the rubble and the fire would be treated as arson.
The exterior wall of the colegio de Santa Victoria of the Madres Escolapias, a private Catholic school, was spray painted with phrases such as "Death to Fascism," "School is Jail," as well as an 'anarcho-feminist' symbol.
During the afternoon of January 14th, police were called to the church of Saint-Georges after the priest discovered that unknown individuals had tried to break into the donation trunks and attempted to force open the door to the sacristy where objects of worship are stored. An hour later, police and firefighters were called to a fire at the Sainte-Foy church nearby. Police later arrested a man in his late-forties with a lengthy criminal record for setting the Sainte-Foy fire. He was then hospitalized for a psychiatric evaluation.
Sometime between January 11th and 12th, an attempt was made to set fire to a wooden wall in the entrance area of the Russian Orthodox Church (Russisch-Orthodoxen Gemeinde des Hl. Gross Martyrers Dimitrios von Thesaloniki) in Schwerin with a candle and oily liquid accelerant. Investigators found a small charred area on the wall of the wooden church because the liquid did not ignite.
A British court has ruled that a pro-life activist may challenge a legal decision banning prayer and support for women in crisis pregnancies outside a Marie Stopes clinic.
"The true martyrs are in the sea" was painted on the wall of the church of San Rocco in Rovereto as the signature of the vandals who threw an incendiary device at the church, setting fire to the door. The attack appears to have been in response to a controversial nativity scene set up to "raise awareness of the tragedy of abortion which condemns children to a real martyrdom."
The Swedish Transport Agency rejected blocked a Christian man’s request to use the word "Kristus" (Swedish for “Christ”) on his license plate, claiming the move could “cause offense” to those opposed to Christianity. When he asked to use the name “Jesus” instead, he was informed that word was blocked, too.
Asher Samson, a Pakistani Christian who fought to stay in the UK after allegedly being beaten and repeatedly threatened with execution by Islamic extremists in Pakistan, was deported back to Pakistan on January 9th. Samson, backed by thousands of Christians, attempted to persuade the UK government to allow him to stay after being threatened with execution by Islamic extremists in his home country.
Unknown perpetrators vandalized an outer wall of the Quickborn Catholic church Maria - Hilfe der Christen with white spray paint. The lettering extended over a width of about 1.5 meters at a height of about one meter.
Thieves stole the lead roof of All Saints Church, which dates to 1390. During the course of the theft the thieves caused extensive damage to the stone parapet on the roof. The damage was estimated at tens of thousands of pounds.
On January 3rd 2019 the Blessed Sacrament was profaned in the parish church of Barcenaciones in Cantabria. A holy mass of reparation was held on January 5th in the evening.
On January 1st 2019 unknown people destroyed the nativity scene at the Alto del Aguila in the mountains of Collosa by kicking and throwing it down the hill. The nativity scene was later found 300 meters away from the top of Alto del Aquila, where it was placed by the porter and 300 other people on December 16th. Every year since 1962 the nativity scene is placed there. The porcelain figures and the old crib made out of methacrylate were completely destroyed. The residents of Callosa de Segura are outraged by this criminal act.
St. Stephen's Cathedral had to be evacuated twice in one week after anonymous telephone bomb threats by were received.
On December 28th, a police officer and the church caretaker were injured when a small explosive device went off outside the Church of St. Dionysios in the Kolonaki neighborhood of Athens shortly before the Divine Liturgy was scheduled to begin. On January 19th, the anarchist group "the Iconoclastic Sect" claimed responsibility for the attack.
Unknown perpetrators broke into a Catholic church and an Evangelical church in Freren, stealing small amounts of money from donation boxes, but causing about 9,000 euros in damage.
Six monks were attacked, gagged, and bound during the course of a robbery at the monastery of Maria Immaculata in Vienna on December 27th. Several of the victims were seriously injured and police began a large-scale investigation.
On the 25th December, a nativity scene in the municipality of Vilassar de Mar was found destroyed by vandals. The Catholic Tabarnia Twitter account posted a video showing the Baby Jesus with broken arms, a painting on the Virgin Mary, and damage to St. Joseph, the mule, the ox and the shepherds.
A 19-year-old man was arrested after causing severe damage to the Apostelkirche in Kaiserslautern on the night of December 22nd. The accused destroyed three glass windows and sprayed the contents of a fire extinguisher in the church. When the police attempted to calm the man, he threatened the officers.
On Saturday morning 22nd December, the new-bought figure of the Baby Jesus from the Nativity Scene of Tordesillas was found beheaded. The vandals also removed the horns of the cow from the nativity scene. There were no witnesses, as it must have happened during the night.
The Olárizu Victorian Cross was seriously damaged after being attacked by a group of unknown people during the night to 20th December. The vandals used a radial attached to some ropes to knock the cross down from the base. There was also a video of the vandals trying to cut the base of the cross. They destroyed the concrete formwork with a hammer and cut the irons. The police and the fire department went to assess the significant damage.
Intruders entered the Benedictine abbey of St. Matthias through a window during the night of December 18th and ransacked several rooms and the adjacent church, breaking sacred objects, overturning furniture, and setting fire to songbooks and other papers. Police estimated the damage to be in the thousands of euros.
On the night to 18th December, two people set fire to the nativity scene in Santa Lucia, next to the port of Cartagena. The nativity scene had been organized by the neighborhood. There were witnesses who say the vandals threw a fireball in one of the corners where the birthplace was located. The neighbors surprised the vandals, who then run away. The fire caused several damages to the figures.
Prosecutors announced that the attack on a busy Strasbourg Christmas market was an act of terrorism, committed by an Islamist extremist who had previously pledged alliance to ISIL. During the attack, the suspect shouted "Allahu Akbar." Security experts have said that the Christmas market was likely targeted both because it was crowded and its connection to Christianity and Christian symbolism. In response to the deadly attack, other Christmas markets across France implemented extra security measures.
The National Police arrested two men for the robbery in the chapel of the Alvaro Cunqueiro Hospital. The alleged thieves stole the tabernacle containing consecrated hosts from the hospital chapel during the night of December 10, and it was a woman who came to pray first thing in the morning that alerted them to the disappearance.
The Thistles Shopping Centre in Stirling, Scotland refused requests from the Legion of St. Mary's Association to display a nativity scene in the mall, saying they "pride themselves on religious neutrality." Despite this official position, the mall heavily advertised a "Christmas Market."