In its “Intolerance and Discrimination Against Christians in Europe Report 2024” OIDAC Europe identified 2,211* anti-Christian hate crimes in 2024. This figure includes a significant rise in personal attacks, which increased to 274 incidents, and a sharp spike in arson attacks targeting churches and other Christian sites. 

According to OIDAC Europe’s findings, most anti-Christian hate crimes were recorded in France, the United Kingdom, Germany, Spain, and Austria.

The year saw several severe incidents:

• In November 2024, a 76-year-old monk was killed and others injured during an attack on a Spanish monastery.
• In January 2024, one man was shot dead in an ISIS-related attack during Sunday mass at a Catholic church in Istanbul.
• In September 2024, a historic church in Saint-Omer, France, was almost completely destroyed by arson.

OIDAC Europe independently documented 516 anti-Christian hate crimes in 2024; when theft and break-ins at religious sites are included, the figure rises to 1,503 incidents. Alarmingly, 94 arson attacks were recorded—almost double the previous year’s total. One-third (33) of these occurred in Germany, where the Bishops’ Conference recently warned that “all taboos have been broken” regarding church vandalism.

The release of the OSCE/ODIHR Hate Crime Data Report places OIDAC Europe’s new findings in a wider context. In 2024, European governments and civil society organisations reported more than 3,000 antisemitic, 1,000 anti-Christian, and 950 anti-Muslim hate crimes to ODIHR, although several states did not submit their data.

Beyond hate crimes, OIDAC Europe identified numerous cases of legal and social restrictions affecting Christians across Europe in 2024–2025. Several individuals were prosecuted under “buffer zone” laws for silent prayer near abortion facilities. In one case, UK army veteran Adam Smith-Connor was convicted by a British court because his head was slightly bowed in silent prayer while he stood within 100 metres of a clinic.

In October 2025, Finland’s Supreme Court heard the case of MP Päivi Räsänen, prosecuted for alleged “hate speech” after quoting a Bible verse in 2019 to question her church’s stance on Pride events.

Legal developments documented by OIDAC Europe also include:

• A Swiss court denying public funding to a Catholic girls’ school, arguing that being a Catholic school reserved for girls, the school would practise “discrimination”;
• A Spanish court ruling against a male-only religious brotherhood for not admitting a woman;
• Another Spanish case where a court barred a father from reading the Bible to his son, granting the secular mother sole authority over religious education;
• A French court upholding sanctions against a teacher for using a text by St. Bernadette in a local heritage class, deemed a breach of neutrality laws.

*The total figure of 2,211 anti-Christian hate crimes results from triangulating official police statistics, OSCE/ODIHR data, and OIDAC’s independent research, while avoiding double counting. The slight decline from 2,444 cases in 2023 was mainly due to incomplete UK police data (excluding London) and a temporary decrease in France—numbers that unfortunately surged again in early 2025. Despite the lower total, personal attacks increased from 232 in 2023 to 274 in 2024, even though data from France and the UK were unavailable for 2024.

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