On Thursday, the 10th of May, Dean Verzel, together with a few adherents, set the XVIIth century votive cross of Strujan on fire. The artist Dean Verzel and photographer Goran Bertok carried out the same act 10 years ago but were acquitted in court.
On May 9th 2012, a church in Pastuva was set on fire and burned to the ground.
Four Chrisitan graves were vandalised and tagged with anti-Christian wordings the cemetery of Canohès in the Easter Pyrenees.
Christian doctor who was sacked for emailing a prayer to his colleagues has lost his clam for unfair dismissal, after an Employment Tribunal ruled that there was “no need” for religious references to be made at work.
The Irish Justice Minister has introduced a 5-year prison sentences for priests who fail to report sex abuse of minors if they hear about it in the confessional.
Secular campaigners have launched an attack on the Roman Catholic Church for urging its secondary schools to back the current legal definition of marriage as between one man and one woman.
Reformed-baptist parents, who wanted to homeschool their three children, lost in the regional administrational court of Baden-Würtemberg in Mannheim. The parents wanted to homeschool to protect their children from a form of „emancipation“ they did not favor, as well as in order to teach them Christian sexual ethics.
Homosexual activists lobby for the proscecution of Bishop Juan Antonio Reig Pla of Alcala de Henares for preaching the Catholic Church’s position on homosexual acts. An international group of Catholic doctors defends the bishop.
The Conservatory of Public Schools in refuses entrance to pupils from private Catholic schools. Director Jean-Louis Robert said: “This museum is for pupils of state schools only. We refuse that children from Catholic schools go to this museum. It’s our right and that’s how it is.”
The Church of the 'Bon Pasteur' was visited by vandals who tried to put it on fire after having done much damages.
Boris Johnson, the Conservative Party mayor of London, ordered bus advertisements for overcoming same-sex attraction to be stopped. The campaign had been cleared by the Advertising Authority, and was designed to be an answer to a pro-homosexual campaign.
Since the presidency of MIVILUDES (Interministerial Mission of Vigilance and Fight against Sectarian Drifts) by Georges Fenech, several small Catholic communities have increasingly been targeted, the last one being "Amour and Miséricorde" (Love and Mercy).
On Good Saturday, just a few hours before the Easter Vigil, three men entered the Church of Cruseilles (Haute-Savoie) and set fire to leaflets, prayer and singing books. An altar’s tablecoth was also burnt and the main altar damaged.
The LGBT association “Arc-enCiel Wallonie” runs a campaign based on 33 different pro-LGBT T-shirts. Among various messages, three of them offend Christianity: “Jesus too had two dads”, “Marie, first surrogate mother” and “GOD made me gay” (two first ones originally in French: “Jésus aussi avait deux papas”, “Marie première mère porteuse”).
On April 7th, 2012 in Istambul, four men requested to enter a church. When the church leader told them to come back the next day because it was too late in the day, they threatened to kill him unless he recited the Muslim creed. Then they hit him and fled the place, the church later installed security systems.
The Catholic Schützenverein voted in March 450 to 28 to not to allow homosexual or lesbian „kings“ or „queens“ to preside activities together with their partners. The German federal anti-discrimination commission screened this decision and declared it to be in disrespect of the law.
"Would Christ have been Gay?" is the name of the exhibition in Neufchâtel, displayed from March 29th to May 12th in the 'Galerie C' of Neufchâtel (Switzerland). The four artist argue that they wanted to explore - through art - the question of Christ’s sexuality.
It is not the first time the pop star Madonna uses the bashing of Catholicism as a base for the writing of her lyrics. “Girl Gone Wild” begins with the first few lines of the Roman-Catholic Act of Contrition as it shows the 53-year-old singer in black tight pants and stiletto heels while surrounded by topless men.
The doors of seven churches of Couvin, in the diocese of Namur, Belgium, were targeted by vandals. The front door of the church of Couvin was marked in white paint saying "Religion is the opium of the people".
The 14th edition of the European Championship Euro 2012, organized by the European Union of Football Associations (UEFA), will take place from June 8th to July 1st, 2012 in Poland and in the Ukraine. The leaders of the Polish Football Association have indicated the certain objects that will be forbidden to spectators in stadiums. Among these objects, crosses and Bibles are stated as part of the category of "racist and xenophobic materials, based on political and religious propaganda."
On the 20th of March 2012 the Apostolic Nunciature in Croatia reported that a cemetery in the city of Suhopole, Croatia, had been vandalised.
About fifteen people came to St Eloi’s church to insult parishioners at the end of Sunday Mass. It is not the first time this Catholic church is targeted by anti-Christian acts, as it had already been covered whith tags and anti-Christian posters.
On the 18th of March, 2012, a church in Pozor, Bosnia Herzegovina, noticed that some of its inventory had been damaged, as well as some of its money stolen.
An online call to “see churches burning” was published as a “Christmas wish” in 2011 by a group of leftwing extremists called 'Antifa Freiburg'. “We will not give up hope that there will be a miracle and we can warm ourselves next year at the glow of burning churches.” Prosecution investigated but dropped the case.
The French Channel Direct8 has streamed a new episode of the show "Very bad blagues" called "When one’s an apostle" ("Quand on est apôtre") which mocks the last supper.
A 12-year-old boy, Hussein, witnessed his Christian faith by wearing a silver cross necklace in school. Muslim classmates taunted and spat on him. When the boy threatened to report one of the bullies, the bully's father threatened to "kill him". He says he also received a beating by his religion teacher.
Catholics and non-Catholics alike have reacted to a viciously anti-Catholic full-page advertisement in Friday’s New York Times. The ‘Freedom From Religion Foundation’s ad, which takes the form of a letter to a “liberal Catholic”, asks “Cafeteria” Catholics, “Why are you propping up the pillars of a tyrannical and autocratic, woman-hating, sex-perverting, antediluvian Old Boys Club?” The Freedom from Religious Foundation is led by Annie Laurie Gaylor and her husband, Dan Barker. Gaylor is author of the book, Abortion Is a Blessing.
A new provocative action was carried out by the occupying regime in Cyprus when Bishop of Karpasia Mr. Christoforos was not allowed to enter the occupied area from the barricade of Astromeritis village. Later, he was also prohibited to go into one area of Agios Dometios. The bishop was stopped without explanation.
The celebrity singer Will Young has suggested that clergy should be put in jail for speaking out too strongly against same-sex marriage.
The most influential leader in the Muslim world issued a fatwa to destroy Christian churches. Response to this call is also possible in European countries.
A homosexual activist disrupted a Mass held in a parish in Teignmouth, Devon, with a video camera last week as a priest prepared to read a letter from the country’s bishops conference opposing government efforts to legalize same-sex “marriage.”
A nun was physically assaulted in Sarajevo, Bosnia-Herzegovina, on the 11th of March 2012,the Apostolic Nunciature in Bosnia-Herzegovina reported. While she was walking down the street, an attacker punched her and she fell to the ground.
The Church of St. Martin, in Herblay, was the target of an arson attack on Thursday, March 8th, 2011. The fire was started in three different areas of the church but was stopped in time by a parishioner.
Hackers claiming ties to the group Anonymous are taking credit after the Vatican website went down Wednesday. They displayed the following message: “Anonymous decided today to besiege your site in response to the doctrine, to the liturgies, to the absurd and anachronistic concepts that your for-profit organization spreads around the world."
Left wing radicals in an NGO called "Antifa Action Heilbronn" protested against the event “Gender Mainstreaming- Overthrow of the Value System - the Secret Revolution”, organized by the Christian Democratic Union and called it a “provocation”. On their webpage the radical group smears the speaker of the event, Gabriele Kuby, who is committed to Christian values, calling her a "reactionary, antifeminist and homophobic agitator" and denoting the “Forum for German Catholics” as “collecting pool right wing activists”.
Workers of a bookshop in Adana were being threatened and harassed by a man on March 7th 2012. The bookshop was forced to increased their security measures.
The Belgian TV series “A tort ou à raison” drawn up by Marc Uyttendaele, repeatedly streams negative stereotypings of Catholics. The first episode, “l’affaire Sainte-Maxime” stages tendentiously a case of pedophilia in a Catholic high school; another episode “la plume empoisonnée” depicts how a fanatic Catholic woman forces her son to become a Catholic priest.
On Sunday, March 4, police notified the pastor of Samsun Agape Church that someone had attacked the church building. The attacker kicked in the church door to get inside. He also damaged the church sign before being detained by police and a neighbor.
The 12th Century preserved heart of the Patron Saint of Dublin, Saint Laurence O'Toole, has been stolen from Christ Church Cathedral.
Jonas Himmelstrand, who is president of the Swedish Association for Home Education (ROHUS), has left the country saying, “the safety of my family could no longer be guaranteed,” and that the government of the town of Uppsala was “threatening” him.
The UK Government submitted to the European Court of Human Rights that the applicants' wearing of a visible cross or Crucifix was not a manifestation of their religion or belief within the meaning of Article 9, and, in any event, the restriction on the applicants' wearing of a visible cross or Crucifix was not an "interference" with their rights protected by Article 9.
In January 2012, Scotland's largest health board was taken to court by two Catholic nurses from Southern General Hospital in Glasgow, Mary Doogan and Connie Wood, who were denied conscientious objection with regard to abortion procedures. Judgment was handed down on February 29th: the midwives have been told that they must accept the decision of their hospital management and that they must oversee other midwives performing abortions. In January 2013, they took the case to the European Court of Human Rights. The UK supreme court upheld the judgement in December 2014.
In Duisburg a group of migrant youths, aged between 10 and 14, keeps destroying the windows of Catholic and Protestant churches, disturbing services (eg. with firecrackers), write hate slogans on the church wall and insult the clergy. So far the police had only investigated one of the numerous cases of vandalism directed against churches in the area.
An improvement of the national health service law in February 2012 did not fully grant conscientious objection to pharmacists: The law still compels the objecting pharmacists to find a willing employee of the same pharmacy or another pharmacist to sell the "morning-after-pill".
To educate one's children privately at home is understood to be a human right of parents. The state is called upon to ensure the quality of the home education. In Slovakia, the so-called homeschooling is severaly limited. Such a law jeopardizes especially Christians families, as practically it is often Christians who wish to homeschool their children.
A Christian psychotherapist is the subject of a professional conduct inquiry in London for supporting therapy for those with unwanted feelings of same-sex attraction. The dispute arose as, in response to a question, Dr Davidson had said: “yes, I do believe homosexuality is a sin.” Commentators speak of a "worrying trend where the door to practising professional therapy is being closed to people with Christian sexual ethics."
An Christian booklet has been distributed to students in some Catholic schools in Lancashire, UK. Its comments on homosexuality raised the discontent of UK’s largest trades union, who says that the government is allowing “homophobia” to be promoted in religious schools.
On February 25th 2012 a man vandalised the agape church in Samsun. He was soon identified, confessed and was released.
Trevor Phillips, the head of the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC), has ignited public controversy by comparing Christians who do not believe that homosexuals should be allowed to adopt children to “Muslims who demand the introduction of Sharia Courts”.
The UK Government has written to all local councils in England, telling them that new laws restore their power to hold prayers at official meetings after the High Court had ruled that local councils have no lawful power to hold prayers during official business. The court case was initiated by the National Secular Society and a local atheist ex-councillor who sued Bideford Town Council in Devon for conducting prayers, a custom that had been in place since the 17th century.
David Burrowes, Conservative MP for Enfield Southgate, revealed at the launch of Coalition for Marriage (C4M) in London that he has received a death threat and hate mail after speaking out in support of traditional marriage.
On February 21, five members of the Punk Band Pussy Riot performed on the altar of the Cathedral of Christ the Savior in Moscow for a few minutes. Beside a political oppositional message, they sang a song that contained unflattering characteristics of the clergy of the temple, as well as the Russian Patriarch, Kirill. The women were wearing colored masks. Church officials called their actions blasphemy, sacrilege, an insult to religious feelings.
Up to 100 graves were the target of vandals in the cemetery of Boué. Ornaments, crosses, plaques and flower pots and vases were broken. The cemetery had to be closed for the police’s investigation.
A photo exhibit at the Fresh Gallery in Madrid displays pictures by Bruce LaBruce displays intolerance against Christian symbols, deepens negative stereotypes and disregards feelings of believers.
On Wednesday, February 8th, 2012, at about 1:30 p.m., the chapel of Saint Joseph in Châtillon was vandalized and the Holy Sacrament stolen.
Between the 15th and 16th of February 2012, a church in Tuzla, Bosnia-Herzegovina, was broken into. The cross was thrown down, and prayer and song books for the service were torn.
Maria Casado, who holds the UNESCO Chair of Bioethics at the University of Barcelona calls for a national registry of doctors who will not perform abortions, in order to “improve” women’s access to “pregnancy termination.”
Tory MP, David Burrowes, is facing an ‘intolerant’ campaign against him because of his opposition to homosexual marriage. The campaign is led by the treasurer of his local Conservative association, Phillip Dawson, who is homosexual.
On January 31st 2012, the third section of the European Court of Human Rights issued a judgment in the case of Sindicatul Păstorul cel bun c. Roumanie whereby it determined that the refusal of the Orthodox Church to register a trade union established within itself was contrary to freedom of association guaranteed by Article 11 of the European Convention of Human Rights. This interferes with the internal organization of a religious institution. The Romanian Orthodox Church has publicly expressed its wish that the matter is now referred to the Grand Chamber for a new trial.
A commercial advertising Red Bull broadcast on Mediaset mocked Christian confession and worship.
The Reverend Malcolm Clarke, minister at Hinckley United Reform Church, said two large "historic inscribed" windows had been completely smashed. The minister said he was shocked and saddened by the attack: "I feel sad and let down," Mr Clarke said.
The Christian owners of a guesthouse who restrict double rooms to married couples have been ordered to pay £3,600 in damages to a homosexual couple in January 2011. Their appeal was lost in February 2012. In November 2013 they were forced to sell their B&B.
Secularists campaign to ban the use of National Health Service money to fund hospital chaplains.
A Swedish law foreseeing prison sentences for criticising the homosexualist agenda in public was upheld by the European Court of Human Rights which has ruled that there it was not in violation of freedom of expression. Four people were fined for a distributing leaflets.
On the 8th of February 2012 the Apostolic Nunciature in France reported that 70 graves were desecrated in a Catholic cemetery in Albi, France.
The Archbishop of York, Dr John Sentamu received racist and threatening messages just days after he voiced his support for traditional marriage, sparking a police hate crime investigation.
The church of Épinais had just been restored when it was completely destroyed during the night from February 4th to 5th, 2012. Five young men were arrested by the police.
An art exhibit displaying disrespectful and mocking statues of the Virgin Mary opened in the Galery Albane in Nantes.
On the 3rd of February 2012, the Apostolic Nunciature in France reported that a cemetery in Istres, France, was vandalised.
In the middle of the night of February 3rd, 2012 someone banged on the door of the house of the church leader of Cesme Lütuf’s and tried to get in. The scared man called the police but the perpetrator was not caught. The leader was scared for his life after having also been threatened over the internet so he shut down the church and left town.
Bishop Philip Boyce of the Raphoe diocese in northwestern Ireland was investigated by the police for “hate crime” after arguing that the Catholic Church in Ireland is under attack from “aggressive secularism”.
A proposal that senior civil servants which are likely to deal with the Catholic Church should be "screened" to ensure they do not show "inappropriate deference" to the church is to be debated at Labour's national conference.
According to an Irish Labor party proposal to be discussed in April, ‘Catholics first’ policy in state-funded Catholic schools is illegal, discriminatory and should be abolished.
Almost 20 years after the war in the Balkans, there is still discrimination against Christians, especially Catholic Christians, in Bosnia-Herzegovina. Cardinal Puljic, Archbishop of Sarajevo pointed out the situation of Christians in his country during a visit to the international headquarters of the Catholic pastoral charity Aid to the Church in Need (ACN).
The students’ union of University College in London has passed a motion to officially make the campus “pro-choice” and to impose a “restriction of freedom of speech”.
Katpédélé, a Lithuanian Pizza Company, uses anti-Christian add mocking the last supper and disposing satanic number 666.
Peaceful pro-life protesters against abortions at Barcelona Catholic hospital were attacked by pro-abortion counter-demonstrators, some of whom reportedly threw rocks and trash and shouted obscene insults.
The play "Golgotha Picnic" by Rodrigo Garcia contains "sedition, blasphemy and pornography", say Christian viewers.
Christian groups protested against the performance of a blasphemous theater play by Romeo Castellucci called “On the Concept of the Face, Regarding the Son of God”. The director of the Vatican press office, P. Federico Lombardi, and Italian sociologist Massimo Introvigne drew attention to the case and called to strong but calm and prayerful reaction of the Christian community.
Nuns wearing habits are being subjected to verbal abuse in public more frequently in Bosnia-Herzegovina, say local Franciscan Sisters.
During the TV show "Big Brother" a participant made blasphemous remarks and for this he was disqualified.
A group of nine firemen from Glasgow, including several Roman Catholics, were disciplined by their employers for refusing to march in a ‘gay pride’ rally. Strathclyde Fire Board apologized after legal steps were taken.
A church-going former mayor in Warwickshire who declined to take part in a Halloween event has been found in breach of equality rules for upsetting pagans.
French pharmacists are required by law to sell the „morning after pill“ which causes an early abortion. The absence of conscientious objection is a violation of freedom of religion and conscience.
Pro-abortion forces on the internet are engaged in an ongoing campaign accusing a Spanish bishop of legitimizing rape during a sermon denouncing the killing of the unborn.
The Swedish liberal party politician Lotta Edholm called for even harsher penalties for homeschooling and for a change to the country’s social services law so that the government can take children away from home-schooling families more easily by allowing social workers to do so.
On January 9th the protestant church in Aplerbeck was broken into. The offertory boxes were robbed and the money, which was meant for a good cause, was stolen.
The Observatory on Intolerance and Discrimination against Christians receives threats and anti-Christian messages such as: "Set the church on fire, keep the fire blazing, Christianity will soon fall!"
Burglars tried to break into the Görglitz Peterskirche. They broke an ornamental glass window and the damage adds up to at least 1000€ even though nothing was stolen.
A Church in Duisburg was badly vandalised on New Year's Eve by unknown perpetrators who used stones and fireworks. Many windows were broken including those with security glass. Fireworks were fired through the holes made in the windows. Damage to property was a minimum of 15 000 Euros.
A stranger broke into the Catholic church in Starzach-Börstingen and vandalised the organ, the Easter candle and much more.
In Mittelhessen, 14 of a collection of 44 handmade cribs were vandalised. The initiator of this exhibition estimates the material damage to about 500€ but the ultimate damage is boundless.
The Polish National Broadcasting Council (NBC) did not include a major Catholic TV channel in their distribution of crucial Digital terrestrial television multiplex licenses but accepted rather unknown commercial networks. Polish Christian groups as well as human rights activists are very concerned. This is a particularily important decision, as the technical future of the individual channels depends on it. For TV Trwam it is especially crucial, as the channel generates the funding for a widespread radio channel, standing and falling with the TV channel.
Several thefts of the Eucharist, for Catholic a most holy item, have been reported in Italy. People fear sacriledgeous use of the Eucharist.
A monument in memory of pope Jean-Paul II was damaged by vandals.
The representation of the Catholic Church in Finland reported to OSCE a total of 21 hate crimes directed against Christians in the year 2011. The hate crimes range from insult and threat to vandalism and physical assault.
The Holy See reported 7 hate crimes against Christians in Denmark in 2011 to OSCE/ODIHR.
The Holy See reported 24 hate crimes against Christians in Finland in 2011 to OSCE/ODIHR.
Religious believes are an obstacle to human rights, says US Secretary of State Mrs Hillary Clinton in a major foreign policy address in December 2011 in Geneva before United Nations delegates. Clinton identified "deeply-held … religious beliefs" as among "the obstacles standing in the way of protecting the human rights of LGBT [Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender] people."
A principal, Malory Nye, and his wife have been sacked from the Al-Maktoum College of Higher Education in Dundee, Scotland, whose stated aim is to promote multiculturalism because they are white Christians, they claim. ‘We were sacked for being white and Christian', claim principal and his wife dismissed from Dubai-backed 'multicultural' college."