Between January 16th and 18th, unidentified perpetrators destroyed a statue of the Virgin Mary in a church in Ściegny and then in Wojanów, a roadside crucifix and figures of angels standing around the cross were destroyed beyond repair.
Unknown Perpetrators stole a brass relief of the stations of the cross that is part of a 14 piece series, from the church of St. Joseph Scholven.
After a strong backlash against the France Inter radio station for airing of a song "Jésus est pédé" (an offensive pejorative for male homosexual), performed and written by Frédéric Fromet, both the singer and the station apologized to the LGBT community, despite the majority of complaints coming from Christian listeners.
Defense counsel for one of the three doctors on trial for unlawfully poisoning an autistic woman via euthanasia has admitted to searching the social media profiles of potential jurors to exclude "devout" Catholics. Walter Van Steenbrugge said he would be a "bad lawyer" if he did not exclude people who were "extremely Catholic," for example if they expressed a Marian devotion or had previously expressed the opinion that euthanasia is murder.
A 25-year-old man was arrested on January 14th for his participation in the vandalism of a Catholic church in Launaguet. According to reports, the Saint-Barthélemy church (Toulouse diocese) had been vandalized with Quaranic inscriptions in previous months.
Just before Christmas, the Catholic Church Guthirt in Aarburg was forced to withdraw access to holy water in its basins following repeated acts of urination into the water. The deacon, Markus Stohldreier, expressed shock and disappointment at repeated attacks against the parish community."In my 36 years as a theologian, I have never experienced anything comparable." He added, "The perpetrators must have urinated in holy water in broad daylight," because the church is closed at night to prevent vandalism.
On January 14th, at the collège Marx-Dormoy, in the 18th arrondissement of Paris, a 12-year-old boy of Serbian origin was brutally attacked for not removing a chain necklace on which a cross hung under his clothes. The website Svi Sribi u Parizu (All Serbs in Paris) reported that the alleged attackers were five other 11-year-old pupils. When he refused to remove it, the alleged attackers surrounded him. One of the boys pushed him to the ground, and all of them started kicking him. The boy was beaten all over his body, resulting in serious injuries to his face and genitals. The attack ended when other pupils screamed for help.
On the 14th January, unknown perpetrators vandalised the walls of San Isidro church with insulting graffiti. They described the priests as ("Maricones" a degrading slang word for male homosexuals). The parish priest reported the case and the the police opened an investigation.
In Vernole on 14 January, criminals seriously damaged the statue of the dead Christ in the Church of the Visitation. The statue is now missing both feet, is detached from the base and was thrown into a corner of the crypt where it was located. The police started investigating.
In Gronau on the night of 13 to 14 January, a hand-painted window on a church building was smashed by unknown perpetrators. The resulting damage to property is around 600 Euros.
Four talks by US Catholic speaker Jason Evert were cancelled due to pressure by campus LGBT groups and media reports referring to the well-known chastity speaker as "homophobic and anti-contraceptive." Presentations at two Dublin colleges, a Catholic conference called ‘Ignite 2020,’ and a talk at hotel were cancelled. According to reports, the University College Dublin LGBT Society called on the university authorities to stop Mr Evert from speaking, saying in a statement that his proposed visit to the university was “putting the safety of UCD’s LGBTQ+ community at risk” and his words could have “lasting and damaging effects on the mental wellbeing of LGHBTQ+ students.”
On the morning of January 12, a 33-year-old man from Rhauderfehn with Ivorian nationality disrupted services in three churches in Rhauderfehn and Ostrhauderfehn by shouting and threatening the worshippers.
On the morning of January 12th, between 9am and 9:30am, a new ornate candelabrum was smashed to pieces and then discarded in the nearby cemetery of the Church of the Most Holy Rosary in Abbeyleix, County Laois. A male suspect was charged and faced an appearance before the District Court. The parish priest called for improvement of security systems and suggested the installation of CCTV cameras.
During the Weekend of 12 January, unknown perpetrators broke the glass on one of the two showcases in the Evangelical church in Viersen. They also pasted two stickers on the edge. The weekend before the metal gate in the garden of the church had been unhinged.
A man suspected of committing the January 11th arson attack on the Saint-Esprit church in Bayonne was arrested the following day. Investigators were able to quickly determine that the fire had been deliberately set and video surveillance images made it possible to identify the suspect who was seen in the images leaving the church a few minutes before the first smoke was visible. The fire, which left no one injured, was brought under control by the firefighters but the suffered extreme smoke damage.
The religious crèche of the Saint-André church in Mont-Saint-Aignan, near Rouen, was vandalized on January 11, with the decorations overturned and the figures broken. The statue of the baby Jesus was decapitated. After expressing his sadness to the parish and to the parish priest, Monsignor Dominique Lebrun, Archbishop of Rouen, deplored the incident as an "offense against the Christian faith."
The Lüneburg police opened an investigation into the theft of the Jesus figure from the church on Friedenstrasse between January 10th and 11th.
On January 11th, it was discovered that unknown perpetrators had broken into St Brigid's Church in Milltown, county Kildare, and stole the tabernacle, containing the ciborium with Communion hosts, as well as the sacristy safe and a candle shrine. The tabernacle was later found by the police in a nearby field.
On 11 January, the Saint-Hilaire Chruch in Faye-l'Abbesse was found without the baby Jesus statue from the nativity scene. The pieces of the Jesus statue were found again at the back of the church. The body, arms and head were scattered. This adds up to recurring vandalism observed by the gendarmes. There have been looting, the cutting of the organ's power supply wire, the disappearance of the sheep from the nativity scene and the burning of music sheets and the curtains of a confess ional altar and coverings and many more.
On the 11th January, unknown persons broke into the church of Jühnsdorf and stole a large metal cross, smashed a window, and damaged the organ. The church had been recently restored by the parish community.