Non-Muslim religious communities living in Turkey report difficulties opening, maintaining, and operating houses of worship. These groups may not build new churches because of the often arbitrary refusals to issue construction permits for places of worship. The reason behind this discriminatory behaviour is the fact that all unofficial meetings for religious minorities are considered potentially subversive.
More than fifty graves have been vandalized: funeral ornaments, flower pots and crucifix have been broken. Windows were damaged and tagged with the satanic number «666».
The European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) had ruled on November 3rd, 2009, that the display of crucifixes in public schools restricted religious freedom. "The compulsory display of a symbol of a given confession in premises used by the public authorities ... restricted the right of parents to educate their children in conformity with their convictions." The judgment was overturned on March 18th, 2011.
An Italian school from Genova, Pertini-Diaz, rejected Cardinal Angelo Bagnasco’s visit. The spokesperson for Pertini-Diaz expressed concerns about the pastoral purpose of the visit, and the security staff that the cardinal would bring along with him. The Pertini-Diaz school would however welcome a non-pastoral visit.
The Ascensión del Señor Church, located in the Madrid suburb of Carabanchel, a working class neighborhood, has suffered the loss of their most precious sacred items, the chalice with the Eucharist and the Holy Oils. The Church, build 60 years ago in a poor vicinity, has no item of value, and "the burglars knew about it", affirms Francisco Pérez, the church Pastor. Fr. Perez adds: "They only took the most precious treasure for our community, the body of Christ".
On March 11, 2011, Paula Nieto, the President of the Students Union at the Complutense University in Madrid, reported incidents at the Moncloa campus law school chapel in a radio interview. According to Nieto, several students locked themselves in the chapel, smoked weed and drank beer, while making statements against the Catholic Church. Nieto argues the attacks come from an ultra-left student group named Contrapoder.
At Universidad Complutense de Madrid (UCM) a group of 50 young people stormed the chapel of the Somosaguas university campus to protest against the Catholic Church.
The way of the Cross of the calvary of Bercianos de Aliste in the diocese of Zamora (Spain) was vandalised. Three ancient granite crosses were highly damaged. Father Lorenzo Martin, parish priest of San Mamed was shocked and filed a complaint.
The windows of a pharmacy in Berlin’s Neukölln district were shattered because the owner does not sell the so called “morning-after-pill” due to his catholic convictions.
Catholic catechism teacher of a Zagreb primary school was accused of homophobia for staying in line with the Catholic Church teachings during catechism classes.
Experienced foster parents lose rights to foster due to religious beliefs on homosexuality. Appeal to High Court lost.
On February 28th, 2011, an unknown number of people broke in the parish house of Tarcin and stole various objects.
A marble grave stone was destroyed and the tomb opened.
Report on Religious Freedom Issues in Serbia: Read here a list of incidents of intolerance against Christians from November 2008 to February 2011.
Media reports that the tabernacle containing the Holy Communion was stolen from San Cristóbal Parish in Moral de Hornuez (Segovia).
Under the headline: “Get bishops out of our law-making”, journalist Mr. Hari hit out at the bishops for voting against measures within the highly controversial Equality Bill and for their stance on end-of-life issues.
Homosexual Polish soccer fans are demanding that a separate seating section be created at the 2012 European Soccer Championship in Poland; they claim that gays and lesbians might otherwise be subjected to harassment and violence. Associated Press Sports Editor, Ms. Terry Taylor, reported about this plea with the following comment: "Homophobia also remains deeply embedded in Poland because of the legacy of communism which treated homosexuality as a taboo and the teachings of the church in the predominantly Roman Catholic country."
On February 23rd, 2011 it was reported that someone had broken into a Christian parish house of Sarajevo and stolen property. A few days later, on February 28th, the same facts occurred in a Christian monastery of Sarajevo.
An unknown number of people broke in the Cathedral of Sarajevo, stole various objects and damaged the interior of the Christian place of worship.
Due to “security reasons”, a glass panel has been set up in order to prevent any worshippers from entering the chapel of the University of Valladolid. The Christian student union “AJIO” met with the president of the university in order to express frustration over such a barrier. Their complaints were not heard, however, as the only answer received from the faculty remains, “God is everywhere. Go away to pray in the field.”