In 18 countries, Christian persecution not improving or getting worse
Aid to the Church in Need’s report finds that conditions for Christians worsened in almost 56% of 18 countries examined between August 2024 and June 2026, with no country showing overall improvement. The report says 413 million Christians live in countries with serious religious-freedom violations, and about 220 million are directly exposed to persecution. Extremist violence, authoritarian governments, and religious nationalism are increasing pressure on Christian communities; conflict is driving displacement in parts of Africa and Asia. Persecution often intensified in specific regions rather than across entire countries.
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Aid to the Church in Need’s 2024–26 report finds that Christian persecution worsened in 55% of the 18 countries it assessed, and that none showed an overall improvement. It describes pressure from extremist violence, authoritarian governments and religious nationalism, alongside widespread displacement and restrictions on religious practice. 2 3
The report covers August 2024 to June 2026 and focuses on countries where violations of Christians’ religious freedom are considered particularly serious. The articles describe the worsening share as 55% or nearly 56%; they report that about 220 million Christians are directly exposed to persecution, while 413 million live in countries where serious religious-freedom violations occur. 1 2 3
Separately, figures from Pew Research Center cited by EWTN indicate that anti-Christian harassment—from verbal abuse to killings—was reported in 165 countries in 2023, up from 160 in 2021. 2
Sub-Saharan Africa is a major focus of the report. Six of the ten countries most affected by terrorism in the 2026 Global Terrorism Index are in Africa; the articles identify Nigeria, Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger among the places facing severe extremist attacks. 1 2 3
In Nigeria, attacks by militants and radicalised Fulani herders have devastated communities and contributed to the displacement of more than 3.5 million people, according to the Vatican News account. It also reports that more than 200 Christians were killed in the Yelewata massacre in a single night. 3
In Burkina Faso, jihadist groups are reported to control at least 40% of the country’s territory. The reporting describes killings, forced displacement and pressure on Christians to follow Islamic social practices; some communities have also faced restrictions on teaching their faith to children. 2 3
The articles both report severe violence in Mozambique’s Cabo Delgado province, including beheadings and kidnappings. They give different totals for Christians killed there since the insurgency began in 2017: one reports more than 1,000, while another cites reports of more than 2,000. 1 3
The report describes government restrictions in several countries. In China, authorities have intensified efforts to bring religious life into line with Communist Party ideology, with reported detentions, jailed clergy, church closures and tighter control over online religious content. 2 3
In Nicaragua, the government’s confrontation with the Catholic Church has involved arrests and exile of clergy, restrictions on ordinations, seizures of Church institutions and limits on people entering the country with Bibles. Vatican News also reports confiscations of property and closures of seminaries and other institutions. 1 2 3
In Iran, the report says arrests of Christians nearly doubled over a 12-month period. In North Korea, Christians are described as practising in extreme secrecy, with those discovered facing possible torture, forced labour or execution. 1 3
In India, the report links rising social hostility and anti-conversion laws to pressure on Christian minorities, citing more than 700 incidents of anti-Christian violence in 2025. Reported incidents include disruptions to worship, physical assaults and obstacles to Christian families burying their dead. 1 3
In Pakistan, the report highlights abductions of underage girls from religious minorities, forced conversions and coerced marriages. It says some cases are upheld by courts that give precedence to interpretations of Islamic law over civil protections. 3
The report also describes insecurity for Christians in Syria following the fall of Bashar al-Assad’s government in December 2024. A suicide bombing at a Greek Orthodox church in Damascus in June 2025 killed 25 people and injured more than 60, according to Vatican News. 3
Forced displacement is identified as a major concern, particularly in parts of Africa and Asia. The report says Christians are among the millions driven from their homes by conflict, including millions of internally displaced people in Nigeria; it warns that displacement could bring lasting changes to the religious makeup of affected areas. 1 3
ACN cautions that violence should not be attributed to religion alone: ethnicity, political instability, poverty and competition for land and other resources can also play a part. At the same time, the report argues that the religious dimension may be overlooked, including when victims and perpetrators identify faith as a factor in attacks. 1 3
At the report’s London launch, ACN UK called on governments and the United Nations to implement Article 18 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which protects religious freedom. The organization also urged greater attention to abuses such as kidnapping, job discrimination, unfair imprisonment and the arbitrary enforcement of blasphemy laws. 2
ACN says its report aims to document these conditions and bring them to international attention. The articles note the charity’s awareness campaigns, including Red Week and #RedWednesday. 1 2
The relationship between religious freedom and systemic persecution
Religious freedom and systemic persecution are directly opposed: religious freedom protects the person’s and communities’ ability to seek and live by religious truth, while systemic persecution uses laws, policies, or social pressure to restrict that ability because of religious identity or belief. Such persecution need not involve imprisonment or killing. It can also take the form of persistent exclusion, unequal treatment, or restrictions that make public religious life practically impossible. Catholic teaching therefore treats religious freedom not as a narrow privilege for private worship, but as a basic human right whose condition affects both personal dignity and peaceful social life.
Religious freedom is rooted in human dignity and the human search for truth about God and the meaning of life. It protects people from being forced to act against conscience or being prevented from acting according to it. The Church’s teaching also recognizes this freedom as belonging to religious communities, not only to individuals.
This freedom extends beyond inward belief or private worship. It includes the ability to express and practice faith publicly, to communicate religious convictions, and to undertake social and educational work inspired by faith. The International Theological Commission warns that where people are permitted only private or community worship, but are blocked from public expression, religious communication, or religiously inspired social works, “there is no real freedom of religion.”
That breadth matters when assessing persecution. A government may formally permit worship while limiting religious communities’ education, charitable services, public speech, access to public office, or ability to live according to conscience. A paper guarantee of religious liberty does not by itself secure the right if the surrounding rules and practices steadily prevent its exercise.
“Systemic” persecution describes a pattern, not just a single hostile act: institutions or policies repeatedly disadvantage people because of their religion, or suppress the public practice and transmission of faith. The sources describe examples including severe penalties for conversion or evangelization, discrimination in employment, exclusion from public office, unequal access to social assistance, and restrictions on Christian health and education works.
Persecution can also be less overt. The Commission calls some forms of exclusion “white martyrdom”: believers may not be killed, yet they can be pushed to the margins through exclusion from public life, indiscriminate bans on religious symbols, or denial of economic and social benefits. The term draws attention to serious pressure that falls short of physical martyrdom but still harms religious freedom.
The relevant question is not simply whether a law mentions religion. It is whether, in practice, people are being burdened or excluded because of their religious affiliation or the public practice of their faith. Pope Francis calls discrimination and restriction of rights for that reason unacceptable, and says persecution on grounds of religious affiliation attacks human dignity and peace.
The Catholic argument is not that religion should be shielded from every law or criticism. It is that the state must not claim authority to suppress the human search for God or to force people to violate conscience. The Compendium of the Social Doctrine of the Church states that society and the state must neither force a person to act against conscience nor prevent action in conformity with conscience. It also clarifies that religious freedom is not a moral licence to adhere to error or a claim that error itself is a right. The protected right concerns the person’s freedom from coercion in religious matters.
Religious liberty is also connected to the protection of other human freedoms. Thomas Joseph White argues that when a state excludes religious belief and practice from the scope of permissible freedom, it acts against the full structure of human freedom, because it places the person’s ultimate questions and commitments under political control. That is a scholarly argument about why religious freedom has wider significance: a state willing to silence conscience in matters it deems ultimate may establish a precedent for overriding other rights as well.
Pope Benedict XVI likewise links religious freedom to mutual respect, while emphasizing that freedom carries duties toward others and the common good. So the Catholic position is not that religious claims automatically override every public rule. Restrictions may be justified where they genuinely serve public order and the common good; the crucial distinction is between proportionate, non-discriminatory regulation and coercion that targets religious belief or practice as such. The available sources establish the general principle, but do not provide a detailed legal test for judging every particular regulation.
Systemic persecution damages more than the immediate victims’ ability to worship. It weakens the conditions for trust among citizens by telling a religious minority that it may participate only if it conceals or curtails a central part of its identity. By contrast, Pope Francis says that legal recognition and consistent protection of religious freedom can foster mutual respect and cooperation between religious communities and the state, without confusing their roles or making them antagonists.
Christian martyrdom makes the human cost especially clear. The Commission presents the martyr as a witness to a faith that remains faithful under pressure and refuses vengeance and murder. Thus the Church’s condemnation of persecution is not a call to retaliatory violence: Christian witness under persecution is distinguished from violence committed in God’s name.
The relationship, then, is both practical and principled. Systemic persecution is the erosion of religious freedom through repeated coercion, discrimination, or exclusion; protecting religious freedom requires more than allowing private belief—it requires room for peaceful public practice and community life. That protection serves religious believers directly and also supports the dignity, conscience, and peaceful coexistence of society as a whole.