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 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 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.
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.
An Egyptian man with links to ISIS has been arrested over a suspected terrorist attack on the Notre Dame Cathedral of Paris, as became known in the media on March 30. The man was arrested on March 5 by officers from the General Directorate of Internal Security (DGSI). Thanks to the work of the domestic intelligence services, the terrorist was identified, arrested for "criminal terrorist association" and placed in pre-trial detention.
On 22 March, a terrorist attack targeting an event location close to Moscow resulted in the deaths of at least 137 people. Gunmen armed with automatic weapons opened fire during a crowded concert at Crocus City Hall. ISIS statements claiming responsibility for the attack boasted of “killing Christians”.
A radical muslim graffiti was spray-painted on the windows of Southchurch Christian Fellowship Centre on Saturday night, March 16. The graffiti, which read "This is a Muslim area", is now being investigated by Essex Police as racially aggravated criminal damage. Ms Champion, who discovered the vandalism, said: "To see someone committing such hateful behaviour is so heartbreaking. It makes me very angry. A colleague and I went to the church to remove the worst of it because we didn't want people to feel intimidated when they came to the Sunday service the next morning."
During the night of March 11, acts of vandalism were committed in the cemetery of the village Clermont-d'Excideuil. Inscriptions with Islamic references were found on graves, the war memorial, the church door, a calvary memorial, and a fountain. Some of the tags read "France is already Allah's", "Isa will break the cross" and "Submit to Islam". Altogether, more than 50 graves were smeared.
On Sunday, March 10, the mayor of Saint-Mesmin discovered that the Notre-Dame-de-Partout chapel in Périgord Vert and the cross facing it were sprayed with graffiti. The tags are reading "the cross will be broken", "convert yourselves" and "Allah". This is only one incident in a series of similar vandalism attacks in the region.
On the afternoon of February 28, at Vienna’s central Stephansplatz Christian the missionary Lahzy Mahfonz Hefzalla Girgis has been attacked with pepper spray. While Mr Girgis was having conversation with a Syrian person, two other allegedly Syrian men approached him. One of the Syrian men shouted "Jesus is God" mockingly and sprayed pepper spray into Mr Girgis' eyes. Lahzy Girgis had to be treated in hospital.
Islamist graffiti was discovered on roadside “calver” stone crosses saying "Tomorrow this will be the land of Islam". this is not the first time: on Christmas night, Islamist vandals wrote "Allah" on the cross, and the other day they found the inscription "Today is the land of infidels".
Shortly after an anti-AfD (Alternative for Germany Party) demo took place on the forecourt, “Allahu Akbar” was daubed in Arabic script on the Protestant Pauluskirche in Hamm, Germany. In response to a news inquiry, the Hamm police confirmed the graffiti on February 20. However, no information can yet be provided about the perpetrator's profile. The investigation is ongoing.
In Dordogne, four large public crucifixes in separate towns were defaced with references to Islam sometime between December 24, 2023 and February 15, 2024. Two of the crosses were located on the side of the road in Saint-Pantaly-d'Excideuil, the two others in Cherveix-Cubas. One cross, built in the 1800s in a village of 146 people, had the word “Islam” and a crescent moon sprayed on it. Another inscription read “Allah”. Yet another cross was spray-painted with, “Today is the land of infidels, tomorrow the land of Islam.”
Rev. Dr. Patrick Pullicino, a neurologist and Catholic priest has been vindicated by the General Medical Council (GMC) after a three-year investigation for allegedly giving a bias opinion due to his 'pro-life values'.
A man entered Saint Jean-Baptiste church and violently attacked the statue of John the Baptist using a crucifix. The statue, made of plaster, was completely broken and the crucifix was badly damaged.
On January 28 at 11.40 local time two masked gunmen walked into a Sunday mass at the Santa Maria Catholic Church in Istanbul's Sariyer district and fired two shots killing a person and leaving several injured. The Islamic State claims responsibility for the attack.
Members of "Defentsa Komunitatea", a youth section of the Basque independence and nationalist movement, interrupted a mass throwing leaflets and fake money. During the last weeks some churches in Azpeitia and Beasain, as well as churches in Lasao, Arroa and Aizarna, have also been vandalized by members of that same group.
On Thursday, January 4, the IS militia once again claimed responsibility for the terrorist attack in Kerman, Iran. It also issued a global call to attack Jews and Christians, particularly in Europe and the US.
A plot to bomb Cologne's Catholic cathedral has been uncovered by police. "The attack was to have been carried out with a car packed with explosives," the local media announced. As a result of the plot, five men were arrested between 26 and 31 December, all of them allegedly linked to Islamic extremists. The Cologne police spokesman said that the police would maintain security at the cathedral.
A 30-year-old man from Tajikistan has been arrested in connection with the terror warning for Cologne's Cathedral. Shortly before Christmas, the German police had received indications about a planned terrorist attack on the Cathedral. The police presumes an Islamist extremist motive. Cologne's Cathedral has been closed outside church service hours due to security concerns since Christmas.
Austria has increased security measures over Christmas due to threats of Islamist terror attacks. The suspected targets should have been Vienna's Cathedral and a few other churches. The Tajik man arrested in Germany was allegedly part of a terrorist group discovered in Vienna. The police is suspecting an Islamist terrorist motive and a connection to the ISIS-K (Islamic State - Khorasan Province). Although the suspect fled, a few other suspected terrorists, namely a man from Chechnya, another Tajik man and a woman from Turkey, were arrested before Christmas. The fugitive was arrested in Germany and is awaiting extradition to Austria.
On December 9, the Austrian Heiligenkreuz Abbey in the district Baden received a bomb threat. The threatening call came shorty before 5 pm. The police confirmed that the threat had an Islamist motive. According to media reports, the aggressor said on the phone: "Convert to Islam, or I will bomb you." Special police forces promptly searched the public areas of the monastery, but no suspicious items were found on the premises.
On 7 December, six climate activists defaced St Mark's Basilica of Venice by spraying Nesquik with fire extinguishers on the right side facade and pouring mud on the columns. They then unfurled a banner and a placard with the photos of twelve climate activists who were detained for three days after a roadblock in Fiumicino.
At the beginning of December, for example, the pilgrimage church of St Mary in Kupfergasse in Cologne was the victim of an attack in which the perpetrators left eclectic messages on the walls of the chapel. The smearing included writings such as "666" and "Allah Akbar", most probably non of these related to genuine Satanism or Islamism. However, the use of these slogans and the fact that the perpetrators defaced the chapel walls point to a strong anti-Christian motive.
On November 26, a 29-year-old man from Syria disrupted the Sunday Mass in Vienna's St. Stephan Cathedral. According to media reports, he repeatedly disturbed the liturgy, jumped over the fence around the main alter and screamed loudly.
On November 23, Keplerkirche St. Johann in Vienna was vandalized. Witnesses had seen a man who had allegedly tore a statue of the Madonna from an anchorage in the church and stole a wooden cross. Based on the witness statements and video surveillance footage, the police were able to identify the perpetrator. The 29-year-old Syrian man was found near the church and arrested. He will be charged with aggravated damage to property and theft. The stolen cross was returned to the church. The same perpetrator attacked the Viennese St. Stephan cathedral a few days later (see case from November 26, 2023).
A 28-year-old Tunisian Christian convert was beaten and robbed for 'attending Christian church'. According to media reports, the man was attacked on the evening of November 12, 2023, in the Ponte San Giovanni district of Perugia by some fellow countrymen, while he was walking with a friend. Now the police have issued three pre-trial detention orders for crimes committed with the aggravating circumstance of religious discrimination.
A priest from the Church of Saint-Joseph in Valence, Drôme region, was threatened with death by an Internet user on the social network "Discord" on November 12.
On Sunday, November 5, the mass celebrated at Saint-Éloi Church in Dunkirk was disrupted by an individual who shouted “ Allah Akbar ”. The man was shouting during the “Our Father” prayer and at the end of the mass.
On April 11, Ahmed Alid, an Islamist extremist, stood trial at Teesside Crown Court, Middlesbrough, for murder of a pensioner and attempted murder of his housemate Javed Nouri, a convert to Christianity. According to the prosecutor, Alid considered Nouri an apostate and “therefore somebody who deserved to die”. The incident happened last October.
On the morning of October 6, Don Boris Bandiera, the priest at the Parish of San Odorico in Sacile, found graffiti on the front wall of the church bell tower. He immediately notified the police, who helped him translate the Arabic graffiti writing: "There is no God but Allah." Don Boris stated that this is not the first attack on his church that he has witnessed, but the message of this vandalism left him stunned.
On 28 September, a group of pro-abortion protesters smeared the walls of Santa Maria del Remei Church in Barcelona with graffiti and placed their protest signs on the windows of the church, with messages such as "trash church, you are the dictatorship". On October 30, another graffiti was smeared at the church wall (see image).
The second tallest metal cross in Europe, a 50-meter cross overlooking Stepanakert, the capital of the ethnic-Armenian Republic of Artsakh, was destroyed during the Azerbaijani military offensive that began on 19 September. This is only one of many attacks on the Christian religion of the Armenians of Nagorno-Karabakh, who are suffering an ethnic cleansing from their native land since the Azerbaijani military offensive.
On 26 September a video released on the internet showed Azerbaijani soldiers shooting at the 13th century Armenian monastery of Charektar in Nagorno-Karabakh. The shots were fired from an armoured personnel carrier and sniper rifles. The attack comes in the context of the ethnic cleansing and military offensive launched on 19 September by Azerbaijan against the Armenians of Nagorno Karabakh which is also targeting Armenian Christianity in the region.
On September 5 a man broke into the Corpus Christi parish church in Pedregalejo (Malaga) and caused considerable damage to the parish hall while uttering death threats and shouting "God doesn't exist", among other derogatory phrases against the Church. The offender smashed several paintings, including one of Mary, a carving of Christ crucified, a pedestal of Mary, several chairs, a candelabra and some glass.
A man targeted a Catholic church in Haninge, near Stockholm, with stones while shouting "Allah Akbar, I'm going to rape Jesus." The video is uploaded by 'Fares Aziz', he posted the video on TikTok. It is not exactly clear when the event took place and how local authorities responded.
On August 17 a foreign man attacked the historic church of Santa Cristina in Turin's Plazza San Carlo in broad daylight. The attack can be seen in a video that is circulating on the Internet. In the video, the man can be heard cursing at the worshippers inside the church, and shouting: 'F****ng Christians'. The perpetrator was arrested by the police and was taken to a hospital, as he injured himself while throwing stones against the church.
On August 17, a video surfaced on the Internet showing a man in the Apostolos Andreas Monastery in the Karpasia peninsula of Turkish-occupied northern Cyprus, harassing a priest by reciting the Shahāda (Islamic profession of faith). Legal proceedings have been initiated against the provokator.
On the night of August 6-7, the monument with the letters "Leiria" in the city of the same name in Portugal was vandalized with an anti-Church slogan. The letters were put in commemoration of World Youth Day 2023 in Portugal painted with the colors and the logo of WYD.
The statue of St Anthony recently inaugurated in Torres Novas was vandalised on August 5. It was found the next morning with the head cut off, the statue of the Infant Jesus destroyed and a carton banner written "God is dead" and "You paedophiles." The damage was valued at €13,000.
On August 5, a tile panel depicting the Ecce Homo (an image of Jesus Christ), the 5th station of the ancient procession of "Nosso Senhor dos Passos," was vandalized with the graffiti "God is trans" in the city of Torres Novas. This panel had recently been restored and blessed.
On the 16th of July, two youths stood trial in Leoben on charges of terrorist association and criminal organization. A 16-year-old and a 15-year-old planned a terrorist attack on MS Bruck school, since early 2022. The police found out through their chats that the plans were far advanced. When questioned, the perpetrators confirmed that they "wanted to shoot all the Christians in the class". The boys have now been convicted by law.
The evangelical church Philadelphia in Marseille was found ransacked on Wednesday, June 28th. The prayer room was destroyed with doors and windows fractured as well. On top of material damage, the tags speak of the anti-Christian nature of the attack: "Jesus is not God" and "Mohammed was the last prophet" were found written on the walls. The pastor has filed a complaint. It is unclear whether the attack is connected to the recent civil unrest in France.
According to the State Service for the Protection of the Historical Environment of the Republic of Artsakh, Azerbaijan is converting the Holy Ascension Church of Berdzor into a mosque. The church in Nagorno-Karabakh was designed by Hrachya Gasparyan, and the construction of the temple was finalised in 1998.
On June 20, in the church of Saint Roch in Nice, a group of young people entered the place and sprinkled themselves with Holy Water and then one of them shouted "Allah Akbar", which can be considered a threat, as this shout is used by Islamists during attacks. The incident was reported to the first deputy mayor responsible for security, Anthony Borré, who said he would take the matter "very seriously".
On June 12th 2023, a "group of young people" attacked Joseph Eid, the rector of the Notre-Dame-du-Liban parish. Shortly after 8 pm a dozen young people allegedly entered the presbytery to retrieve a soccer ball, and were scolded by the priest. The situation seems to have escalated and the priest was violently thrown to the ground, then grabbed by the back of the neck before being helped by witnesses. The assailants then fled, hurling anti-Christian insults.
A 21-year-old British man, Edward Little, has pleaded guilty to preparing to commit acts of terrorism in an attack against the evangelist Hatun Tash in 2022. Little was found carrying £5,000, with which he planned to buy a firearm to kill Hatun Tash at the Speaker's Corner, a place for public debates where she frequently debates and preaches. He refused the allegations at first, but on the May 19, 2023 he admitted to planning the murder back on September 23, 2022.
Christian missionary Lahzy Mahfonz Hefzalla Girgis has regularly installed a Christian book table in different districts of Vienna, where he distributes bibles to those interested. He reported receiving death threats and being physically assaulted because of his message that “Jesus is God”. On May 5, 2023, his bookstall was surrounded and attacked by a mob and bibles were stolen.
In the context of the current blockade by Azerbaijan on the Republic of Artsakh, the ethnic Armenian breakaway state in the Nagorno-Karabakh region, the Armenian Christians are suffering increasing threats and fear for their future. In one of the latest threats against the Christians living in the region, Azerbaijan has demanded the expulsion of the Armenian clergy from the Dadivank monastery, built in the 9th century and one of the symbols of medieval Armenia.
On Thursday 20th of April, the Protestant Kreuzkirche in Graz was targeted by vandals. The Austrian police were able to catch one of the perpetrators. The witness Christine Pfau was working inside the church when the attack occurred. She was preparing everything for the next service when she heard a sound noice and saw a colored smoke through the windows. The Vandals had smeared the walls, the pillars and the church doors with about 15 spray cans, scraps of smoke and paint bombs and left even more rubbish lying on the floor.
On the 31. March 2023, pupils and teachers from the Catholic School "Saint-Pierre", in the southern city of Montrond-les-Bains, received a threatening message in the school's intern e-mail box. An unknown person, probably an outsider, threatened pupils of with death with the words "I'm going to cut your throat". An investigation has been opened by the police.
A terrorist alert in the city of Vienna on 15. March made it particularly obvious, that religious buildings and communities live in fear of attacks or vandalism. During the 15. March, the police guarded several religious sites and churches in the city, according to possible threats of an Islamist attack identified by the intelligence office. Security cameras have been dispatched in many Viennese churches. Jewish and Muslim communities also have such protections.
"If you abort now, what are we going to f**k in 5 or 6 years?" This is what was depicted in the posters that appeared in March in several bus shelters in San Sebastián, Spain. Apart from the hateful sentence that attacks religious feelings and discriminates Catholics, the posters included the image of an unborn child and the logo of the Spanish Episcopal Conference. The Organisation "Abogados Cristianos" filed a complaint regarding the events and now the courts have asked the Ertaintza (Basque Police) to investigate the authorship of the posters.
On March 19, unknown vandals wrote the anarchist motto "Ni Dieu ni maître" (No God nor master) on the pedestal of Cardinal Saliège's statue in Toulouse. The Cardinal served as archbishop of the city during World War 2 and used all his power to rescue Jews from persecution and later received the title of Righteous Among the Nations. The current archbishop, Guy de Kerimel strongly condemned this degradation which "hurts both Christians and Jews". The degradation occurred precisely eleven years after Mohammed Merah's mass shooting at a Jewish school.
The Church of the Sacred Heart in Bordeaux has recently been vandalized and defaced with offensive graffiti, causing shock among the local community. According to reports from French news outlets, the perpetrators attempted to set fire to the church's door and left hateful messages on the walls, including phrases such as "Thank you Satan" and "devil take me with you". Witnesses have stated that the offenders may have been a group of intoxicated individuals who were present before firefighters arrived at the scene.
As reported by The Telegraph and the Christian Institute, Girlguiding, the UK's national guiding organisation for girls, has come under pressure and criticism after it published a blog post in which the organization argued that in order to make some of its traditional songs "inclusive for everyone," they need be changed to remove "references that have been hurtful to people." Using as an example a song in which references to God were removed.
According to ifamnews, the Spanish Christian Lawyers Foundation has started legal proceedings against Senator Carles Mulet for engaging in acts of harassment against Christians and the affiliated organizations that publicly express their religious beliefs. The lawsuit also claims that Mulet has advocated for the removal of crosses by city councils, particularly in the Valley of the Fallen.
On February 7, a man was arrested by police in Paris for making death threats against multiple priests. According to a French news site, a staff member from the Saint-Sulpice church alerted the authorities about the suspect. It was also reported that the man had threatened a priest in the Saint-Germain-des-Prés parish. The Paris judicial police are investigating the case, and it was revealed that the man is on an S file for state security related to terrorism and a search file for a temporary ban from French territory. These developments are concerning and raise questions about the motives behind the threats and whether the man acted alone or as part of a larger group.
On the afternoon of January 28., a perpetrator sprayed a red swastika symbol on the entrance door of the St. Wendelin Church in Neuses. It was reported that the act of vandalism was discovered right after the mass around 6:15 p.m.. The number 187 was also found next to it. An employee who takes care of the church, Klaus Schmitt, has removed the spray paint off from the wall.
On the evening of January 25, a jihadist terror attack targeting two Catholic churches took place in Algeciras, Spain. Y. K., a 25-year-old Moroccan, has been arrested as the sole perpetrator of the attack, which he executed with a machete. An altar server was killed, and at least four persons are injured, including a priest in serious condition. Several witnesses indicate that he conducted the attack while shouting "Allah is great" and "death to Christians".
In December 2022, the Church of Norway was asked by the local branch of the Human-Ethical Association (HEF) to remove the crosses on chapels and cemeteries as it finds them to be "threatening". The HEF advocates for more "neutrality" in public space.
"No God, No State, No Patriarchy" was sprayed on the walls of the Breitenfeld Church in Vienna in a vandalic attack that took place in late November. An eyewitness sent the picture to OIDAC Europe.
A Church in the Gütersloh district in Rheda-Wiedenbrück has been smeared with Islamist slogans. The church had been renovated two years ago. The parish dean, Reinhard Edeler, has expressed anger and sadness at the scene. The incident was reported at the beginning of November. The parish dean has notified the State security services.
Christian Concern reports that Shaun O’Sullivan, a Christian preacher who was arrested for criticising Muhammad and Buddha, has been found not guilty following a court hearing. O’Sullivan was arrested in Swindon Town Centre on 11 March 2020, for alleged ‘hate speech’ and for causing "harassment, alarm and distress."
It was reported on the 20. October that the walls of the Sint-Elisabeth Church in Kortrijk were vandalized with crossed-out crosses and the word "F*CK" written with black spray paint. This is not the first time the church has faced vandalism. The pastor of the church, Guido Cooman, said that he is going to file a complaint with the police.
A new report on "Hate Crimes Based on Religion, Belief or Nonbelief in Turkey" by the Freedom of Belief Initiative of the Norwegian Helsinki Committee describes the increasing problem of hate incidents against religious minorities in the country. These attacks target Christians, Jews, Alevis (a branch of Shīʿa Islam with some pre-Islamic influences, which is practiced mainly in Turkey), and atheists. The nature of the hate attacks varies between damage to property, threats, violent attacks against individuals, damage to places of worship and cemeteries, harassment, and insults. Some places belonging to religious communities have been repeatedly targeted.
On September 17, 2022, a mass at the Sacred Heart Church in Brig, Switzerland was disrupted by two pro-abortion activists. It was the day before the March for Life in Switzerland, and the sermon of the priest Fr. Edi Arnold was about the protection of life.
An unknown perpetrator has vandalised several churches in Basel, as it was reported on the 17. August. Two of the churches that were vandalised were the St. Joseph Church and the Holy Spirit Church. In the St. Joseph Church, there was a message saying "Jesus Christ, Allahu Akbar" in white paint. The Holy Spirit church was severely damaged, as there were numbers and letters scratched into the sandstone and other inscriptions were made with black and red pen. In total there were 5 churches vandalized.
The Canadian police released the hate crime data for 2021 on the 3rd of August, showing an alarming rise in anti-religious hate crimes: from 530 cases in 2020 to 884 in 2021. Anti-Catholic hate crimes rose 260%: while there were 43 cases in 2020, it rose to 155 in 2021. Catholics were the second most target group after Jews. Main News Broadcasters reported on these worrying numbers, but although Anti-Catholic motives were the second most targeted religious group and showed the highest rise among all categories, the media only used examples from other groups.
On the 29. July, the wall of the Church of our Lady in Zurich was found with inscriptions in red paint saying: "Burn in Hell", "Strike Fundamentalists on the Mouth" and an anarchist symbol, along with paint dripped over the staircase. For the time being, the parish staff is not allowed to clean up the graffiti, while the crime is being investigated by the police. The shocked priest said he had never experienced anything like this.
A new report by the European Centre for Law and Justice (ECLJ) reveals the persecution that European Muslims who convert to Christianity face. It also sheds light on the fact that the rights and freedoms of people who wish to leave the Islam religion are not adequately protected. According to the report "it is difficult and more generally dangerous for a Muslim to leave his religion" in France.
On Sunday 24. July, a 25-year-old resident of Chambourcy was arrested after he seriously disrupted a Holy Mass in the church of Saint-Germain, in Saint-Germain-en-Laye (Yvelines). The man, who happened to be Muslim interrupted the celebration by shouting and calling the parishioners "hypocrites" and "shitty Christians". As a parishioner approached him to ask him to leave, the man hit him with a headbutt and knocked out two of his teeth.
During an interview with the Christian Institute, Dr. James Holt, Chair of the Freedom Declared Foundation, said that there is a lack of religious literacy among some elected officials in the UK. He noted that at the recent International Conference on Freedom of Religion and Belief in London, the issue seemed to be addressed mainly as a foreign policy issue and not a domestic concern. He considers that "much more needs to be done" to counter anti-religious hatred in the UK and secure religious freedom.
A Moroccan man was arrested in Zaragoza, after breaking into the Basilica del Pilar in Zaragoza shouting: "Allah is great, he is the only true God, yours is false and you are infidels".The young man also threw a copy of the Qurʾan into the church and left then left. He was later arrested by the police.
During the night between July 15 and 16, unknown perpetrators vandalized Rydboholm's church in Borås with swastikas, penises, and the word 'Hitler'. The security company was the first to notice the graffiti on the church's facade. When Pastor Sven-Erik Olsson arrived at the church, he noticed how much worse the case actually was: "There is graffiti on windows, on doors, flower pots and even on the stone stairs in front of the gate. It's outrageous, it's the whole community's church". The police were alerted and are looking into the case.
The evangelical Sacrower Heilandskirche in Potsdam was vandalized with large amounts of graffiti on the 6th of June by unknown people. The damage to the UNESCO World Heritage Site, which the police were investigating, will cost tens of thousands of euros to repair. The slogans written said "No God; No State; No Patriarchy" and portrayed an anarchist symbol.
A lawsuit filed in October 2021 by the Spanish Foundation of Christian Lawyers to remove books with anti-Catholic language has been dismissed. In the mentioned books, it is possible to find statements such as "The bishop gets it in the ass", "Hookers in the Vatican" and "Allah is not great and Jesus does not love us". The lawsuit called for the reiteration of 32 LGTBI-themed books distributed to 12 public institutes of Castellón and in the center of minors Pi Gros. The books were distributed by the City Council. The Contentious-Administrative Court 1 of Castellón dismissed the case. The Spanish Foundation of Christian Lawyers said they will appeal the judicial decision before the Superior Court of Justice, on the grounds that, in their perspective, "these books violate fundamental rights and incite hatred against all religions".
For the 7th time, a vehicle of the Catholic help group "HOME Base" Salzburg, was spray-painted, covering the name, logo, and slogan on the van. This time it happened on the 30th of May. The victims later wrote on Facebook "Thank you, dear 'Antifada' confused neighbors." They also called on the City of Salzburg to do something to prevent such attacks.
A Ukrainian Orthodox Church in Ivankov (Kyiv region) was raided by unidentified armed persons. The perpetrators cut down the lock of the church and raided the interior, expelling the parishioners and the priest. When the clergy of the church tried to file a crime report, the police refused to take it seriously. It was the Church of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary.
On May 18th, mass was held in the basilica of Wadowice to commemorate the 102nd birthday of Pope John Paul II. During the mass, the anti-clerical initiative "Enough of Silence", organized a protest in which they turned on loudspeaker to disrupt the celebrations. Some in the square tried to stop the protestors and were shocked by their presence saying: "How can you be there? On such a day?"
On May 10. 2022, an army doctor was stabbed to death in front of his two children. The 40-year old man was quietly picking up his children from a catholic school in Marseilles, when he was attacked from behind by Mohammed L. (23). The suspect claims he committed this crime "in the name of God".
Between February 24th, when Russia first invaded Ukraine, and May 7th, there have been 116 spiritually significant buildings destroyed. 91 of these buildings were Orthodox churches while the rest, were Mosques, Synagogues, Catholic and Protestant churches, and buildings of religious organizations. Most of these ruined sites were in the regions of Donetsk, Kyiv, and Kharkiv. The war in Ukraine has caused a divide, especially in the Christian Orthodox Church which has led Russia to ban the Ukraine Orthodox Church and Ukraine to attempt a similar ban on the Russian Orthodox Church.
On the night of May 6th, the car of Albert Ratkin, bishop of the Glorification Church in Kaluga, was painted with the "pro-Russian war" letters Z and V, and polyurethane was put in the exhaust pipe and doors. The vandalism was done because the Bishop had a YouTube channel, called "View from Heaven", on which he had posted videos against the war. He said: “I am not speaking with criticism, I am offering some solutions. Not everyone likes it, you see.”
On May 1st during a trade union demonstration, a group of leftist activists - also identified as Antifa - attacked parishioners in front of the Notre-Dame des Victoires church in Angers. The group went by the name of "the Angevin Anti-Fascist Network (RAAF)." The parishioners were attending the 11-hour Mass, while others had positioned themselves in front of the church to prevent attacks. The mob still threw paint on the building and squashed eggs on the ground. They shouted "homophobic slogans" and later returned with a banner directed at Catholics that read, "We are here to challenge those who are dedicated to deifying themselves." The police had to intervene to stop further violence.
As it was reported on the 21. April, two Coptic Christians, who were smoking in the square in Turin, were approached by a Muslim group who told them it was Ramadan and they should not be smoking. The two men, who were wearing Christian crosses, explained their faith and that they were not Muslim, so this rule did not apply to them. The Muslim group then proceeded to attack the two with kicks and punches but left before the police arrived.
On Saturday the 16th of April, a man entered an Easter church service in the Church of St Panteleimon and shouted Arabic phrases into a microphone. Video footage showed the priest trying to calm the congregation and the offender was later arrested by the police in Athens.
An Easter procession on Holy Thursday had been going for about an hour and a half when objects began to fall on those attending. This occurred while the procession was going through Cuesta del Chapiz but luckily the police were quick to take action and a disaster was prevented. This was the second attack on Easter processions in Spain during the Easter week, both of which showed targeted discrimination of Christians.
The walls of the Santa Maria church of Donoratico were defaced with blasphemous writings on April 13th. Words such as "Don't pray to a Lord, shoot the banker" were written along with various skulls and masks. The priest Don Antony, reported the crime to the Carabinieri but did not know who did it.
As predicted, religious minorities have experienced increasing persecution in the Russian occupied areas of Ukraine. According to reports, Baptists seemed to be especially targeted by Russian forces. Elijah Brown, general secretary of the Baptist World Alliance, said that in his most recent visit to Ukraine, he was informed that "Baptist leaders needed to evacuate as the security officers had credible information that the invaders intentionally intended to target Baptist pastors in those areas."
Anti-Catholic tags appeared on a church in Gràcia, Barcelona on the 12th of April. This time, the Sant Joan Church received the abuse which was, among other things, the words "Church and patriarchy, criminal alliance 8M" scrawled on the wall in black. Councilor of Valents in Gràcia, Jordi Daura, wrote on Twitter: "It is an absolute disgrace the constant lack of respect for the Church by bigots. We will demand that the insults are cleaned up."
Five young North Africans in El Vendrell were bothering people during a Palm Sunday procession in hopes that they could prevent the religious event from happening. The local police were notified of the attacks and arrested two 24-year-old individuals who were accused of an attack against the law. The police were searching for the other three.
The church of San Gottardo in Vittorio Veneto has been once again vandalized in an attack that was described as blasphemous and brutal. The incident was reported on the 7th of April. Unknown perpetrators inscribed Insults and phallic symbols in black on the walls of the sacred temple. Due to the lack of surveillance cameras, those who did it will be hard to find but after this act, the Municipality was considering putting some in.
On the 2nd of April, young people and families were harassed by activists and feminists, while praying outside the Askabide abortion clinic in San Sebastian. They were praying the rosary on their knees, with a megaphone, under the motto "praying is not a crime" and carried a cross and an image of the Virgin. Tensions started to build up as protesters began harassing, censoring, and insulting the pro-life group. The police from Ertzaintza had to intervene in order to prevent attacks against the people praying.
The St. Bernadette church in Montpellier, has once again been tagged with anti - Christian phrases such as, "the only church that illuminates is the one that burns". There have been a series of vandalistic attacks to this church and churches in the Montpellier area but no one has been identified despite an investigation launched by the national police.
The parish of Sainte-Bernadette in Montpellier has been graffitied with threatening tags directed at the church and Father Benoît on 25. February. The phrases were mainly intifada and anarchist related and included "the only church that illuminates is the one that burns." Father Benoît was distressed by the act and planned to file a complaint.
Back in 2020, a group called The National Federation for Free Thought requested that The statue of the Virgin Mary, in the village of La Flotte-en-Re France be removed. They claimed it was not in accordance with the separation of church and state. This case has now gone to court and will be decided on March 3rd. The statue was only targeted after it was hit by a car and was later rebuilt identically.
A man, who was Caucasian and possibly Chechen, entered the Saint - Gervais church in Avranches during the morning mass on February 20th. He walked around the building shouting "Allah Akbar" while play rap music with his phone. The authorities were notified and began searching for him.
A man with typical Muslim attire returned to the Basilica of Notre-Dame de la Trinité in Blois on 29. January after he had prayed to Mecca and been asked to leave. The churchman was concerned by his behaviour an called the police who searched him. The Koran and a long kitchen knife were found attached to his belt at which point he was taken into custody.
The driver of a van that displayed pro-life slogans and images was attacked in Warsaw and the incident was recorded on video. A man threw an object at the vehicle as it stopped by a red light, and when the driver opened the door, he tried to pull him outside and hit him twice, and then he ran away.
During a funeral on 27. January, a man entered the Saint - Denys Basilica in Argenteuil, shouted "Allah Akbar," and then fled. Moments later, a swastika was found painted on the outside of the church and the acts were thought to be connected. The incident was reported to the police but no one has been caught.