Catholics are facing soaring levels of discrimination in some of the most influential countries in Europe, a new report said.
The Vienna-based Observatory on Intolerance Against Christians in Europe identified the United Kingdom, France, Germany, Spain and Sweden as the five countries most affected by a “rising phenomenon” of harassment and violence toward Christians.
“These countries were selected because, according to our observations, Christians face the most difficulties in them,” said the Dec. 7 report, “Under Pressure: Human Rights of Christians in Europe.”
It said Christians increasingly endured both subtle and explicit discrimination as a result of secularist and Islamist ideologies taking hold in the local populations, producing an intolerance that is “becoming more visible.”
The report found that the phenomenon had resulted in a 70 percent increase in hate crimes against Christians in 2019 and 2020. “The negation of a public voice is mainly based on strong and sometimes even extreme opposition to Christian morals derived from core beliefs,” the report said.
“In some cases, it does not stop at negation, but goes even further toward a criminalization of public or even private opinions.”
The report, compiled over two years, concluded by inviting “international and civil-society organizations to contribute toward improving this situation by reporting and raising awareness about this phenomenon.”