
A masked man in a black cloak, gold mask, and plush ears disrupted the Christmas Vespers and approached the front of Cologne Cathedral before being escorted out by church security.

On 24 December 2025, the parish priest of the church of the Sacro Cuore publicly reported repeated acts of vandalism, including repeated property damage and anti-Christian graffiti, affecting churches in Sant’Egidio.

The KALEB Family Centre fell victim to politically charged graffiti and paint attacks on Christmas Eve.

A church in Tombolo was vandalised during the Christmas period, causing structural damage that led to restricted access to the site.

In Kahla in the Saale-Holzland district, unknown individuals stole and damaged parts of a Christmas nativity scene displayed outside the Catholic church of St Nikolaus in December 2025.

On 21 December, a figure of the Christ Child was found hanging by the neck in a nativity scene in the market square of Bolesławiec. Surveillance footage showed hooded individuals entering the scene and tying the doll to a rope in the manner of a gallows.

A church in Vienna was repeatedly defaced with Arabic slogans and Syrian nationalist clan codes in December 2025, prompting a police investigation.

Children discovered cigarette butts placed on Nativity figurines and a swastika drawn on St. Joseph’s silhouette at parish and municipal displays in Lentate sul Seveso.

75-year-old grandmother and Christian prayer group leader Rose Docherty has been arrested a second time and criminally charged for holding a sign reading “Coercion is a crime, here to talk, only if you want” within 200 metres of an abortion facility in Glasgow.

Unknown perpetrators shattered six windowpanes at the historic St. Johann church, prompting a police investigation and public appeals for information.

On 19 December, an intentionally set fire destroyed the wooden altar dedicated to Saint Anne inside the parish church of Saletto, in Vigodarzere.

Multiple Nativity displays in Solliès‑Ville were stolen or vandalised, prompting concerns among residents and volunteers who maintain the Christian installations.

A break‑in at Notre‑Dame‑de‑l’Assomption resulted in the theft of a revered relic, prompting condemnation from parish and city officials.

British charitable volunteer Isabel Vaughan-Spruce has been criminally charged in Birmingham under the UK’s new national abortion “buffer zone” law for silently praying near an abortion facility, with her trial scheduled for 29 January 2026. This is the first known prosecution under the Public Order Act 2023, highlighting tensions between public-order regulations and freedom of conscience.

Authorities detained a Polish university student accused of preparing an ISIS‑inspired explosive attack on a Christmas market.

UN human rights experts have raised alarm over legislative and administrative measures in Estonia that target the Estonian Orthodox Christian Church (EOCC). They warned that these actions—ranging from legal amendments to restrictive treatment of clergy—could disproportionately limit religious freedom.

Police opened a criminal investigation after unknown perpetrators etched a Nazi symbol into the wall of a church in Lower Saxony.

A desecration of the Church of the Angel in Camaiore involved blood traces on the altar, misuse of sacred objects, and prompted both police investigation and a call for reparation by the Archdiocese of Lucca.
Historic St Mary’s Church in Coleorton, Leicestershire suffered costly damage when unknown perpetrators smashed two of its stained glass panels in what police and clergy described as “mindless vandalism”.

A holy water font at St. Fidelis Catholic Church in Burladingen was deliberately filled with urine in an act of targeted desecration shocking parishioners and clergy. The parish priest called the act "a slap in the face of a believer."