Pope Francis has praised the courageous witness of the 21 Coptic Orthodox Christians killed by ISIS in 2015, calling them “saints of all Christians.” In a video message for the “Day of Contemporary Martyrs” Feb. 15, the pope said, “I hold in my heart that
Blasphemy cases in Pakistan continue to create upheaval both inside and outside the courtrooms. The most recent victim of these laws is Syed Wajid Ali Kazmi, a man accused for an alleged blasphemous post on his WhatsApp profile. The incident drew outrage and eventually made
On January 27, three Christian pastors were arrested and jailed on forced conversion charges in the Balaghat District of Madhya Pradesh. According to local sources, six Christians, including the three pastors, were attacked and taken to local police by a mob of radical Hindu nationalists.
Every day, 13 Christians worldwide are killed because of their faith. Every day, 12 churches or Christian buildings are attacked. And every day, 12 Christians are unjustly arrested or imprisoned, and another 5 are abducted. So reports the 2021 World Watch List (WWL), the latest
According to local sources, a pregnant Christian woman in India suffered a miscarriage after she was brutally beaten by a mob of radical Hindu nationalists. The radicals justified their attack by falsely claiming their Christian victims were involved in forced religious conversions to Christianity. On
At the beginning of this year Open Doors, an international Christian NGO, published its annual World Watch List 2021. This highlights countries in which Christians face high to extreme levels of persecution. Last year there were 74 countries on the list. This means that 340 million Christians had
The body of a Catholic priest was discovered in Nigeria on Saturday, a day after he was kidnapped by armed men. Agenzia Fides, the information service of the Pontifical Mission Societies, reported on Jan. 18 that Fr. John Gbakaan “was allegedly executed with a machete
The diocese of Rome will host a memorial Mass on Friday for Servant of God Shahbaz Bhatti, a Catholic politician in Pakistan assassinated by an Islamic terrorist group 10 years ago. Bhatti served as Pakistan’s Federal Minister of Minorities Affairs from 2008 to 2011. He advocated for four
In 2021, modern-day persecution against Christians is at an all-time high—with numbers increasing at an alarming rate. Research for the Open Doors’ 2021 World Watch List—the most in-depth investigative research and report on Christian persecution available—shows that today, more than 340 million people worldwide face persecution and
International Christian Concern (ICC) has learned that the Turkish authorities have stalled the investigation into the disappearance of elderly Assyrian-Chaldean Christians Hurmüz and Şimuni Diril. They were kidnapped from the Turkish village of Mehr, located near the Iraqi border, one-year prior on January 11, 2020. The abductors
