By Isabella H. de Carvalho
Nations bear the responsibility to protect, respect, and guarantee freedom of religion, said Archbishop Ettore Balestrero, the Holy See’s Permanent Observer to the United Nations and other international organizations in Geneva, at the event “Standing with Persecuted Christians: Defending the Faith and Christian Values” on Mar 3.
“Almost 400 million Christians worldwide face persecution or violence, making them the most persecuted religious community in the world. This means that one in seven Christians is affected,” Archbishop Balestrero said.
“Even worse, almost 5,000 Christians were killed for their faith in 2025, which equates to an average of 13 per day,” he said.
The Archbishop explained that for Christians, those who are killed for their faith are “martyrs,” so “’witnesses’ to their creed who embody values that challenge the logic of power,” while from the perspective of international law, “they are victims of outrageous human rights violations.”
“Their testimony must not distract from the fundamental responsibility of States which should have protected them,” the Permanent Observer highlighted.
Freedom of religion is fundamental human right
“It is the State’s duty to protect freedom of religion or belief, which includes preventing third parties from violating this right,” he insisted. “This protection has to safeguard believers who are targeted, before, during, and after an attack. However, impunity remains one of the most serious issues in the global landscape of religious persecution.”
“A State should promote freedom of religion or belief, first and above all because it is a fundamental human right,” he underlined.
Archbishop Balestrero also noted that nations themselves must “respect freedom of religion or belief and refrain from interfering with an individual’s or group’s ability to profess their faith privately or publicly through worship, practice, and teaching.”
Subtle and silent forms of persecution
Archbishop Balestrero then highlighted that it is “deeply unjust and profoundly concerning” that almost 400 million Christians around the world “are subjected to physical violence, subjugation, false detention, the expropriation of their property, enslavement, forced exile, and even murder because of their religious beliefs.”
He noted that this issue affects countries across the world, including in Europe, where over 760 anti-Christian hate crimes were recorded in 2024 alone, such as arson attacks on churches, physical assaults, or vandalism.
The Permanent Observer shed light on other “more subtle and often silent forms of persecution,” which do not show up in statistics. For example, he mentioned gradual marginalization or exclusion from social and professional life, discrimination, or “discreet” restrictions and limitations that “narrow or in fact annul the rights legally recognized to the predominantly Christian population.”
Archbishop Balestrero pointed out that in Western countries, human rights enshrined in international instruments “are sometimes overridden by competing interests or claims to so-called ‘new rights,’ the normative status of which is not established in any treaty or customary international law.”
He cited statistics from the Observatory on Intolerance and Discrimination against Christians in Europe (OIDAC), which state that in 2024 there were 2,211 cases of violent incidents affecting Christians in Europe. “These include prosecutions for silent prayer near abortion facilities or for quoting a Bible verse on social issues,” he said.
He insisted that these “are not superficial acts” but “serious violations of the rights of Christians, perpetrated by the very authorities who are charged with the duty of respecting, protecting, and promoting the human rights of all.”
“This contradiction must end,” he continued.
The Cross
Lastly, Archbishop Balestrero emphasized that “attacks on Christians are attacks on the Cross itself,” as he said that the cross is formed by a vertical line that “represents human openness to transcendence” and a horizontal one that symbolizes “the human bond with others.”
He explained that attacks on the “vertical dimension seek to sever the relationship between conscience and God,” by confining faith to silence, as they attempt to “close the space in which the human spirit transcends itself.”
Attacks on the horizontal dimension, concluded the Archbishop, deprive “the human person of their innate capacity to respond freely to the call of truth,” and ultimately can lead to the disintegration of relationships within communities. – Vatican News
