The Tar Heel Knight

Lent, our time to pray and sacrifice for the suffering and death of Jesus Christ, the very first Christian to be persecuted! I write this on the two year anniversary of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, Christians fighting Christians, still occurring and escalating with no end in sight. In the United States, we just had an unprecedented “hate crime” committed against St. Patrick’s Cathedral in New York City, a sacrilege of speech and demonstration with foul language and blasphemy. Fortunately, no Mass was involved which would likely have been a catastrophic sacrilege of the Eucharist.

 
More than 400 Catholic churches have been attacked since May 2020 (Rome Reports, November, 2023). With a world-wide Christian population of 2.4 Billion, Christianity is the most persecuted religion ( Islam is number two). Christian persecution is spreading and growing.
We, brothers and men of Christ, must defend our Faith, other Christians, and all religions from persecution!
 
Worldwide: “The persecution of Christians is at its highest point in three decades”, according to the latest report from advocacy group Open Doors. The World Watch List, released by Open Doors, reported that, overall, the number of Christians facing persecution worldwide increased slightly to 365 million from 360 million.. However the persecution is growing more severe, and the US has not made the list…yet! As of 2018, Christians face harassment in 145 countries, Muslims face harassment in 139 countries, and Jews face harassment in 88 countries. (Wikipedia, 2024)
 
“Open Doors defines Christian persecution as ‘any hostility experienced as a result of proclaiming the name of Jesus.’  The top countries persecuting Christians in 2023: North Korea, Somalia, Yemen, Eritrea, Libya, Nigeria, Pakistan, Iran, Afghanistan, Sudan, India, Syria, Saudi Arabia. 1 in 7 Christians are persecuted, 1 in 5 in Africa. 2 in 5 in Asia. 5,000 were murdered. (Statista, 2024). “Last year, 45 nations scored high enough to register ‘very high’ persecution levels on Open Doors’s 84-question matrix. This year, for the first time in 29 years of tracking, all 50 qualified—as did 4 more nations that fell just outside the cutoff.” Out of the top 50 most persecuted countries, Russia, previously number 46, fell off the list (Christianity Today, February, 2024). Of the 50 top counties, 29 are oppressed by Muslims, including Nigeria, only 3 by Communists, North Korea, China and Vietnam. (Christianity Today, February, 2024)
 
In “North Korea, the most dangerous place in the world for Christians, being discovered as a follower of Jesus is effectively a death sentence. In 2023, the country strengthened its border with China so it’s now harder for Christians to flee and harder for support to reach them” (Open Doors USA website, February, 202).
 
‘The number of attacks on churches and Christian-run schools, hospitals and cemeteries has exploded in 2023, up seven-fold compared to the previous year. It’s been driven by mob violence in India, church closures in China, and attacks in Nigeria, Nicaragua and Ethiopia.
More than 14,700 churches or Christian properties such as schools and hospitals were targeted

in 2023. It marked a six-fold increase compared with attacks recorded the previous year. In China, at least 10,000 churches were closed. In India, Christian properties were raided by violent mobs. And in Algeria, where there were 47 official Protestant churches, only four remain open and they are now under intense pressure. These attacks put huge pressure on Christian communities, sparking fear and insecurity. Even if believers do regroup in smaller numbers, they have limited leadership and few resources.” (Open Doors USA, February, 2024).
 
“When violence is isolated as a category, the top 10 persecutors shift dramatically—only Pakistan, Nigeria, and India remain. In fact, 20 nations are now deadlier for Christians than North Korea”. (Christianity Today, February, 2024). “‘Thirteen Christians a day were killed for their faith in 2023, on average. Nigeria remains the deadliest place to follow Jesus; 82% of killings happened here, 5,014 in 2022. Violence only eased during Nigeria’s elections, which accounted for a drop in the number of Christians killed globally compared to 2023.” (Open Doors USA, February, 2024). Image attached courtesy of Newsweek.
 
“Nigeria entered the top 10 worst countries for Christian persecution for the first time.” (Christianity Today, Feb., 2024) 25 percent of the Christians in Nigeria are Catholic. As many as 94 percent of self-identified Nigerian Catholics surveyed said they attend weekly or daily Mass, according to a study published in early 2023 by Georgetown University’s Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate. According to the World Values Survey, this is the highest Mass attendance rate for any country.
 
“On Christmas Eve 2023, at least 140 Nigerians were slain across some 15 central villages by rampaging herders wielding guns and machetes, the worst such attack in the region since 2018. The area has for several years been prone to clashes between Muslim Fulani herdsmen and mainly Christian farmers.” (Catholic Review, February, 17,2024)
 
United States: In 2023, Family Research Council identified 436 incidents—more than double the number identified in 2022 and more than eight times the number identified in 2018. These findings suggest that hostility against U.S. churches is not only on the rise but also accelerating. See full report here:
https://www.frc.org/issueanalysis/hostility-against-churches-is-on-the-rise-in-the-united-states-an alyzing-incidents-from-2018-2023. Obviously, Christianophobia is a very serious problem in
21st-century America. The hateful bumper sticker “So many Christians, so few lions” is just one example of anti-Christian bigotry. No one would dare to drive a vehicle with an anti-Muslim or anti-Jewish message on their bumper. (Lancaster Online, January 31, 2024)
 
We, especially as Knights of Columbus, defenders of our Faith and defenders of our fellow Christians, are called as men of God to be strong, clear, and devoted. Stand up for our Faith and lead by prayer and example. The 365 million persecuted Christians world-wide does not take into account the numbers of Christians and Christian Churches being persecuted in Europe and the US. Christian persecution used to be a third-world, remote issue. Today, we see it at