Speaking to diplomats in the Vatican on Friday, Pope Leo XIV said the persecution of Christians remains “one of the most widespread human rights crises today.”
During the annual address to those accredited to the Holy See, the pontiff said Christian persecution is affecting 380 million believers around the world.
The 2025 World Watch List published by Open Doors said although Christianity is the world’s largest religion, with 2.3 billion adherents and continued growth, the same report reveals that one in seven Christians face persecution. The report said this figure rises to one in five in Africa and two in five in Asia.
In his address to the diplomats on Jan. 9, Pope Leo said persecuted Christians suffer high or extreme levels of discrimination, violence and oppression because of their faith.
He said the persecution worsened in 2025 due to ongoing conflicts, authoritarian regimes and religious extremism.
“Sadly, all of this demonstrates that religious freedom is considered in many contexts more as a ‘privilege’ or concession than a fundamental human right,” he said.
“Here, I would especially call to mind the many victims of violence, including religiously motivated violence in Bangladesh, in the Sahel region and in Nigeria, as well as those of the serious terrorist attack last June on the parish of Saint Elias in Damascus. Nor do I forget the victims of jihadist violence in Cabo Delgado, Mozambique,” Leo added.
Aid to the Church in Need (ACN), the leading Vatican-sponsored charity dedicated to persecuted Christians, says over 17,500 churches have been attacked in Nigeria’s Middle Belt – which is the area between the country’s Muslim dominated North and Christian dominated South – while 2,000 Christian schools have been destroyed in the region. The charity also says at least 3 million internally displaced people have been across the Middle Belt in the past 12 years.
Both Bangladesh and Syria have had recent political revolutions that has put in more Islamist governments, leading to attacks on Christian communities, which were often seen as supporting the more sectarian previous regimes.
RELATED: The Vatican needs to embrace English, especially with an American pope
However, Leo did not just speak about the attacks on Christians in the developing world, but also turned his eyes to what is happening to Christians in the secular West.
“At the same time, we must not forget a subtle form of religious discrimination against Christians, which is spreading even in countries where they are in the majority, such as in Europe or the Americas,” the pope said.
The charity Barnabas Aid says persecution in secular, Western nations takes place in particular cultural, political, ideological and religious contexts.
The charity says governments and activists can target Christians on issues such as abortion and homosexuality using things such as “safe areas” and laws affecting free speech.
Pope Leo says this affects the lives the faithful in nations that were once considered Christian, but where more and more people have rejected their faith.
“There, they are sometimes restricted in their ability to proclaim the truths of the Gospel for political or ideological reasons, especially when they defend the dignity of the weakest, the unborn, refugees and migrants, or promote the family,” Leo told the diplomats.
Follow Charles Collins on X: @CharlesinRome
