(LifeSiteNews) — A new report has shown that arson attacks on churches in Europe have doubled in one year.
OIDAC Europe (Observatory on Intolerance and Discrimination against Christians in Europe), an NGO, released its 2025 report on Monday, raising the alarm regarding attacks on Christians in Europe.
Notably, the number of arson attacks on churches and other Christian buildings doubled in 2024, compared to the previous year, with 94 reported cases. Germany experienced the highest number of documented arson attacks with 33.
According to the report, a total of 2,211 anti-Christian hate crimes were recorded in 2024, including 274 attacks on individuals. “Behind these figures are specific cases of church vandalism, arson, and physical violence that have real consequences for the lives of local communities,” explained Anja Tang, director of OIDAC Europe.
Most anti-Christian crimes in 2024 occurred in France (770), the United Kingdom (502), Germany (337), and Austria (116). According to the report, the crimes range from graffiti on buildings and smashed windows to murder.
OIDAC warned of a dangerous shift: although the total number has fallen slightly compared to 2023, attacks against individuals, as well as arson attacks, have increased.
Among the most severe cases, OIDAC names the murder of a 76-year-old monk who was killed during an attack on a Spanish monastery, and a man who was shot in “an ISIS-related attack during Sunday mass at a Catholic church in Istanbul.”
The report criticized the U.K.’s “buffer zone laws” around abortion facilities, criminalizing silent prayer for the unborn in those areas. It names U.K. army veteran Adam Smith-Connor, who was convicted for silently praying in one of these buffer zones.
OIDAC warned that increasing secularization would often lead to legal issues for Christians who expressed their beliefs about marriage or gender.
“In particular, traditional Christian beliefs – such as the view that God created human beings as male and female for one another – may be labelled as ‘discriminatory,’ even where no act of discrimination has occurred,” the report states. “The mere expression of such beliefs can result in disciplinary measures, including interrogation, suspension, or dismissal.”
OIDAC noted that surveys indicate a high number of unreported anti-Christian cases. Half of the priests in Poland said they faced aggression in the past year, while almost 50 percent of the youth in Germany said that hostility toward Christians is widespread in the country.
“When half of the priests in a predominantly Catholic country experience abuse, hostile attitudes toward Christians can no longer be dismissed as a marginal issue,” Tang said.
In light of the continuing high numbers of attacks against Christians, OIDAC Europe called for political action at the EU level. Specifically, the NGO advocated the appointment of an EU coordinator to combat anti-Christian hate crimes, comparable to the existing mandates against anti-Semitism and anti-Muslim hatred.
At the same time, OIDAC appealed to member states to implement the new OSCE guidelines on anti-Christian hate crimes. The systematic recording of attacks against Christians is particularly urgent, as it is still incomplete or non-existent in many European countries.
