Media revealed that a police detective allegedly put pressure on the Wellingborough local Tory party to unseat councillor Anthony Stevens after Mr. Stevens had defended the freedom of speech of a Christian street preacher and a Christian councillor. According to reports, the police detective explained that “in her opinion” Mr Steven was “not a fit person to be a councillor” because of his free speech beliefs and used internal information ton put pressure on the local chair of the committee. The incident happened just before the police searched and detained Cllr Stevens for supporting the freedom of speech case of Christian councillor King Lawal on his personal Twitter account in August 2023. The incident has prompted accusations of political interference by police.
Unknown perpetrators daubed the facade of the Protestant Christ Church with the word "Allah" in Arabic language. The words were written with neon pink spray paint on the door and the wall. The town's inhabitants are shocked about the incidents, local media says.
Sebastian Vaughan-Spruce was fined on May 16th in Birmingham while standing in a buffer zone near an abortion clinic. Among other things, the police asked him "Are you here to pray for the lives of unborn children?", in order to establish whether he was committing a crime. Sebastian replied that he was not praying silently in his head and further clarified: "I did not approach anyone, I did not speak to anyone, I did not breach anyone's privacy. I simply stood silently." He carried no sign either. The police could not tell him which crime he was committing, but nevertheless asked him to move away and leave the zone. When he inquired why, he was fined for not moving.
Unknown individuals broke into the Church of the Holy Trinity a village near Peć and vandalised it with graffiti. The messages included “Allah Akbar,” as well as Albanian phrases such as “Remove this church from here,” “Only Muslims are here,” “We don’t want churches, we want mosques,” and “Islam is the only true religion!”
On Wednesday, May 15, an unknown perpetrator tried to set fire to Dennistoun Baptist Church in Glasgow with a petrol bomb which exploded in front of the entrance door of the church. Images show the charred pavement in front of the church. Police received reports of attempts to damage Dennistoun Baptist Church on Finlay Drive at around 10:50 a.m., and an investigation has been launched.
On Wednesday, May 15, unknown perpetrators set fire to a 19th century large brick chapel on the catholic cemetery in the town of Smorgon in Belarus. An image of Jesus and the roof of the chapel was burned. Parishioners are convinced that there was an act of profanation.
On May 14, benches were gathered in heaps and set on fire in front of the choir in the church of Sainte-Thérèse in Poitiers. Furthermore, a statue of Mary was beheaded by the vandals.
On Monday, May 13, a 40-year-old man entered a church in Czaplinek with a knife while a First Communion service for children was taking place. The adult worshippers overpowered the man and called the police. The latter detained him for disrupting the service. According to witnesses, the man was dressed all in black, held a long kitchen knife and was walking towards the priest.
More than 400 party members filed a complaint with the UK Equality and Human Rights Commission which accuses the Liberal Democrats of deselecting a candidate based on his Christian faith in breach of equality law and having tolerated a “hostile environment” for people of faith. David Campanale, an Anglican believer and award-winning former BBC journalist has been targeted by an activist group within the party who has been lobbying against him because of his Christian believes since his selection as a candidate in 2021. The campaign alleged that he had not sufficiently disclosed his faith during the selection process, which he denies, and complained that a decade earlier he had been a member of the Christian People’s Alliance (CPA).
Next to the entrance to the church of St. Anthony of Padua slogans written in black pen appeared on the wall. "Islam will win, with you or without," and "Deen over Dunya" ("Religion over worldly life") are just some of the numerous slogans on the wall. Some of the words have been crossed out or replaced, but the graffiti has not been removed.
On the night of Wednesday, May 8 to Thursday, May 9, Ascension Day, the abbey church of Saint-Pierre-sur-Dives was the victim of acts of vandalism. The tabernacle, where the consecrated hosts are kept, was forcefully opened, although nothing was stolen. Mass vestments were also vandalised. The parish priest, Father Donat, immediately lodged a complaint with the gendarmerie. The gendarmerie is investigating the accident.
Wednesday May 8, minors set fire to the Catheral of Casalmaggiore and vandalised it. The boys broke into the nave on the right side of the church where they broke the stoup into pieces and started a fire with candles. They then entered from the opposite side and went into a storeroom where the electrical panel that operates the lift and installations is located. The perpetrators could be identified thanks to surveillance cameras.
On May 8, two Polish missionaries, Fr Andrzej Yukhnievich, OMI and Fr Pawel Lemekh, OMI were detained at the parish church of Our Lady of Fatima, Šumilina in Belarus for expressing their support to Ukraine. They have been sentenced to 15 days and 10 days in prison, for “subversive activity to the detriment of the Belarussian state”.
Saint-Sernin church in Brive became the target of two arson attempts on May 3 and May 6. Due to lack of resources to ensure continuous surveillance, the church is now closed.
On Saturday evening, May 5, the police were called to the Lutheran Böhler church in Plettenberg, because a witness had found "people rioting" there. Upon arrival the police found that the door had been smashed in and the wooden panelling was broken. The interior was "a picture of devastation", according to reports. The baptismal font was knocked over, a candelabra was torn down and a window was damaged. The organ on the upper floor was also demolished, as were parts of the roof truss. The damage is estimated by the presbytery to be at least 50,000 euros.
Unknown persons have scratched two swastikas and a runic symbol on the façade of Fourteen Helpers Church in Zeitzer Straße in Gera. According to the police, the offence is now being investigated not only for damage to property, but also for the use of anti-constitutional symbols.
A protestant church in France was vandalised with a graffiti reading “Long live Saint-Barthélemy”. Saint Barthélemy Day refers to the mass massacre of Protestants following 24 August 1572, in which between 15,000 and 30,000 Protestants were murdered in Paris and the provinces because of their faith. In this light, the graffiti is a particularly troubling display of anti-Protestant hatred.
On 29 April a fire was discovered inside the garages on the grounds of St Theresa’s of the Child of Jesus Church in St Helens. A window of the church was also found to have been smashed. The Detective Police Inspector, Jimmy Rotheram, commented: "It’s truly shocking that a church, which is such a valued resource and focal point for the community, has been targeted in this way."
Unknown perpetrators broke into the church of Our Lady of Czestochowa and stole the consecrated host, which is considered as an act of desecration by Catholics. Two ciboria with consecrated hosts disappeared from the secure tabernacle, as discovered by parish priest Father Stanislaw Mikos during Sunday Mass.
In the village of Hesborn, the parish church and the cemetery chapel were smeared with right-wing slogans and symbols. Early on Saturday morning, April 27, a large swastika was found emblazoned on the church door and "Foreigners out" was written on the door to the cemetery chapel. Police and state security are investigating.
Unknown persons set a fire in a church in Haren between April 26 and 27. According to the police, the fire was set in the porch of the Sacred Heart of Jesus Church (Herz-Jesu-Kirche). Floor tiles were damaged as a result. The fire went out on its own.
On Friday morning, April 26, an unknown perpetrator tried to set fire to the church of San Bernardino Realino in Carpi. After attempting to steal the offering box, he set fire to the tablecloth in the side chapel.
On Wednesday, April 24, the walls of the Church of the Immaculate Conception in San Lorenzo, Rome, were defaced with graffiti, including anti-Christian slogans. 'Fire at the Vatican', 'Freedom to anarchists', 'Trans liberation', 'Get the church out of our pants' and 'Free Palestine' were some of the inscriptions on the walls.
On Tuesday evening, April 23, in the church of Appels in Dendermande, an act of vandalism was reported.
The chapel of Bethlehem Church in Blaenavon, in the south of Wales, has become a target of vandalism three times within three weeks. According to media reports, parts of the out buildings at Bethlehem Church have been vandalised and a wall and step were damaged. Furthermore, urine was discovered in the church doorway.
Since the weekend of April 21, the St. Franziskus church has had smashed windows since the weekend. The management board is shocked.
On Sunday, April 21, unknown persons entered the Catholic Church of St. John the Baptist during official opening hours, tore flower decorations from the benches, destroyed sacrificial candles and burned paper in several places.
On Sunday, April 21, Ursula Becker, a member of the parish council at St. Katharina, Aachen, discovered garbage and graffiti in the parish's St. Mary Chapel. Among other things, "Allahu Akbar" was written on the walls and doors. The crime must have happened between 12 and 4 p.m.
On Saturday night, April 20, individuals broke into the church of Sancta Maria in Albis, located in the heart of the village of Breil-sur-Roya.
The Passion Trail set up by the Evangelical Lutheran parish in Hagen-Haspe has been demolished. The path, which was lined with crosses and prayer texts, led along the forest path at Tücking.
On April 16, Brussels officials issued a police order to ban the entrance to the NatCon conference. The official order to shut down the conference included the reason that its "vision is not only ethically conservative (e.g. hostility to the legalisation of abortion, same-sex unions, etc.) but also focused on the defence of “national sovereignty”, which implies, amongst other things, a “Eurosceptic” attitude”. In an emergency ruling, Belgium highest court has lifted the ban and declared it unconstitutional.
In its judgment on Tuesday, April 16, the High Court of England and Wales dismissed a Muslim pupil's challenge to a ban of 'prayer rituals' at Michaela Community School in Brent, north-west London. The High Court judged that publicly funded schools in England can impose such bans of communal prayer rituals among students. It is not yet clear in how far Christian prayer will be affected by the ban.
The grave of the late Patriarch Neophyte was desecrated in Sofia, the Bulgarian Orthodox Church informed Tuesday morning, April 16.
On Sunday, April 14, five adolescents entered the Saint-Etienne Cathedral in Metz during a concert of Bach, one of them interrupting the concert and shouting "Allah Akbar". The teenagers then fled but were found and arrested by the police.
Shortly after 6 pm, a 41-year-old man started shouting complaining about an alleged theft of a backpack. According to the police, he then entered the church in Via Felice Bellotti, the San Benedetto Monastery, in Milan’s city centre and started to hit commemorative wreaths and a statue, which he threw to the ground. The police intervened against the intoxicated man, who was charged with a criminal offence.
In the afternoon of April 13, a statue of Jesus was stolen from the Easter crib in the Consolation Parish in Via XX Settembre in Genoa. The first scene of the Easter crib displayed Jesus entering Jerusalem on the back of a donkey.
The German national security forces have unearthed a terrorist cell of minors in Düsseldorf. According to the newspaper Bild, the youths wanted to attack "Christians ("unbelievers") in churches" and "police officers in police stations" with knives and Molotov cocktails in the name of the ISIS. Arrest warrants have been issued.
Great Yarmouth Minster Church was broken into twice within two weeks, first overnight between March 29 and March 30 and then again on April 12, 2024. Besides stealing money the thieves also broke the windows of the church and took sacred objects, namely the bread and wine which has been blessed and kept reserved and some of the sacred oils. "So many people in Yarmouth feel hurt by the fact that a place they consider special and important to community life has been violated," the church Reverend said.
On April 10, a young man threw several bottles filled with alcohol against the façade of the Catholic Sacred Heart Church in Diez during the church service at around 6 p.m, causing heavy soiling and property damage.
At the church of Castelvecchio di Compito in the Lucca region, a 37-year-old man stole objects worth over 10,000 euros from the oratory, which included liturgical objects dating back to the early 19th century such as two candelabra and a wooden canopy. He set fire to the parish premises and fled.
The administrative office for foreigners of Central Franconia, Germany, has issued a deportation order for an Iranian convert. According to the media, the lawyer has confirmed the conversion to Christianity of the Iranian asylum seeker. The lawyer also said that his client had been warned by his mother not to return to Iran because otherwise he would be arrested.
The church of St. Athanasius monastery in Tetovo has been broken in, all the windows were broken and serious material damage was done.
During mass on Monday, a pickpocket stole a purse containing about 100 Euro and the woman’s phone in the church of Sant'Aniello Abate in Cosenza. The theft happened while the woman was praying.
According to the religious freedom watchdog organisation Forum 18, Archbishop Viktor Pivovarov has become the fifth person to receive a criminal conviction for criticising Russia's war in Ukraine from a religious perspective. On April 8, he was found guilty of repeatedly "discrediting" the Russian Armed Forces after condemning the war as "aggressive" and "Satanic" in his sermons.
On Saturday, April 6, unknown persons set fire to a memorial table of the Church in Roßwein and damaged the donation box.
Two Children, one of them a 12-year-old boy, set a fire to the Serbian Orthodox Church of Our Lady in Feldkirch causing considerable damage. After searching the unlocked donation boxes for cash, they set the cloth at the altar in the back of the church on fire endangering liturgical objects.
Burglars broke into St. John's Cathedral in Den Bosch, smashed stained-glass windows, emptied a fire extinguisher inside the building and stole a time capsule intended to be opened in the year 2122.
A fire broke out in the church of Saint-Jean-Baptiste in Agneaux on Thursday afternoon, April 4. According to police investigation's initial findings, the fire was intentional.
In the Church of St. Maksymilian Maria Kolbe in Bogatynia, a Mission Cross was chopped down over night.
Between December 28, 2023 and April 4, 2024, St. John the Baptist Church (S. Hovhannes Mkrtich) in Nagorno-Karabakh was destroyed, according to Caucasus Heritage Watch, referring to satellite pictures. The church was built in 1818 had been a landmark in Shusha/Shushi.