The Order has long noted that while about 30 percent of the world’s population identifies as Christian, 80 percent of all acts of religious discrimination are directed at Christians. This new report only underscores the plight of Christians worldwide: now one out of every seven Christians in the world must live in fear of persecution, violence, unjust arrest, and harassment, solely for professing faith in our Lord God and Savior Jesus Christ. The Order of St. Andrew reaffirms our commitment to shed light on this crisis confronting Christians in the Middle East and around the world, and to raise our voice in prayer and supplication to Almighty God that the suffering of our brothers and sisters would be relieved.
“ACN: almost 300 million Christians persecuted in 21 countries,” by Robin Gomes, Vatican News, November 22, 2018:
“Aid to the Church in Need” released its “Religious Freedom Report” 2018 on Nov. 22, noting Christians continue to be the religious group most susceptible persecution.
Some 61% of the world’s population live in countries where religious freedom is not respected; in other words, 6 out of every 10 people around the world cannot express their faith with total freedom. Among them are almost 300 million Christians, or 1 out of 7, who live in a country of persecution, subject to violence, arrest, and human rights violations.
These were some of the figures unveiled on Thursday in the “Religious Freedom Report” 2018 by “Aid to the Church in Need” (ACN), the international pontifical Catholic charity and foundation that helps persecuted Christians worldwide….
The report that contains data between June 2016 to June 2018, shows grave violations of religious freedom in a total of 38 countries. In 17 of them there is serious discrimination on grounds of religious faith, and in the remaining 21, there is outright persecution of religious minorities, in some cases to the point of death….
The ACN study shows that in 22 countries, the reasons for attacks on religious freedom are rooted in radical Islamism, while in other countries the dominant causes are rooted in the authoritarianism of states or governments which pursue policies of “aggressive nationalism”. Among these countries are China, India, North Korea, Myanmar, Vietnam and Kyrgyzstan….
