Christian persecution

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Catholic communities in Burkina Faso ‘constantly living in fear’ 

September 5, 2024 Catholic News Agency 0
Worshippers attend a mass at Ouagadougou’s Catholic cathedral on June 12, 2022, in Burkina Faso. The country has been grappling with Islamist terrorism since 2015 and Christian communities live in fear of furhter attacks. / Credit: OLYMPIA DE MAISMONT/AFP via Getty Images

ACI Africa, Sep 5, 2024 / 06:00 am (CNA).

Two Catholic priests serving in the West African nation of Burkina Faso have spoken about the threats that terrorist groups pose to Christians in the country, saying the people of God there live in constant fear.

In a Sept. 2 press conference organized by Aid to the Church in Need (ACN) International, Father Bertin Namboho, diocesan financial administrator of the Diocese of Nouna, and Father Jean-Pierre Koné, a parish priest in Tansila, shared their personal experiences in the country that has been grappling with Islamist terrorism since 2015.

“Since the onset of these attacks, we have witnessed our community being torn apart. The terrorists have blocked our city, destroying essential services. There is no electricity, no water, and the health system is reduced to a minimum. The situation is critical,” Namboho lamented.

“We now have about 5,000 people in our city who have fled from the villages. They have lost everything. Their husbands and fathers have been killed or disappeared, and we are struggling to provide for their basic needs,” he said.

The economic toll on the western town of Nouna is equally devastating, he said, adding that the destruction of infrastructure has disrupted local commerce, leaving residents without access to banks and essential services.

“The entire city has been under siege, with no access to food or medical supplies. The situation is extremely difficult for everyone,” the priest said. 

He recounted his personal experiences with the terrorists, saying that various encounters have instilled in him “profound fear.”

“During my travels for the church’s work, I have faced armed groups who question and threaten us. I was with nuns, and we were stopped and searched. It is terrifying to face such hostility and know that priests have been kidnapped and killed,” he recounted, adding: “We are constantly living in fear, unsure if we will survive each day.”

For his part, Koné, who has been serving in Tansila parish since October 2022, spoke about the escalation of violence across Burkina Faso over the years. 

Upon arriving in the town of Tansila, also in the western part of the country, Koné found the region already facing severe security challenges, he said. “The situation was tense from the beginning, but it has worsened progressively. The terrorists have targeted and destroyed all communication networks, cutting us off from the rest of the country.”

Koné recalled the devastating impact of the terrorists’ attacks on April 15, 2023, when more than 200 militants stormed Tansila. 

“They arrived in the evening and attacked the town with such force that residents had no time to gather their belongings. They looted everything — food, money, and even transportation means,” Koné recounted. 

He continued: “The destruction was immense. Our church, presbytery, and all our religious artifacts were vandalized. We returned to find everything in ruins.”

The psychological and spiritual impact of these attacks, he said, have been “profound.”

“The destruction of our church feels like the loss of our religious identity. It is as though we have been stripped of our dignity and our faith. The pain is not just physical but deeply spiritual. It raises questions about where God is in the midst of such suffering.”

Koné also spoke about the impact of the terrorist attacks on the local population, who he said is grappling with the loss of loved ones and the destruction of homes and livelihoods. 

“We celebrated a dark Christmas last year,” he said during the ACN press conference. “The attacks had left us in a state of panic and despair. Our communities are deeply scarred, and the suffering is unimaginable.” 

This article was first published by ACI Africa, CNA’s news partner in Africa, and has been adapted by CNA.

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Catholic diocese in Nigeria condemns brutal assault on priest by military

August 14, 2024 Catholic News Agency 0
Bishop Mark Maigida Nzukwein of Nigeria’s Wukari Diocese and one of the church stewards who lost an eye. / Credit: Wukari Diocese

ACI Africa, Aug 14, 2024 / 17:06 pm (CNA).

The Diocese of Wukari in Nigeria has condemned an attack on All Saints Catholic Church Ikyaior by the Nigerian military personnel on Aug. 5 in which the priest in charge and his stewards were assaulted and badly injured.

In the attack, said to have happened between 9 and 10 a.m., one of the church stewards lost an eye, according to a statement the diocese shared with ACI Africa, CNA’s news partner in Africa, on Tuesday, Aug. 13.

The diocese noted that military personnel suspected to be from Makurdi in Nigeria’s Benue state arrived at the residence of Father Bernard Unum and assaulted him along with his stewards.

“They arrived in approximately six military trucks and motorcycles and proceeded to assault Father Unum and others present. During the attack, Cornelius Terhemen, Father Unum’s steward, sustained severe injuries, resulting in the loss of an eye,” the statement read.

The Nigerian diocese expressed shock following the incident, which is said to have occurred within the church premises despite the institution’s constant collaboration with government bodies in promoting development, justice, and peace.

The attackers continued to attack the priest even after he identified himself to the assailants.

While condemning the attack, the diocese called upon the chief of army staff “to identify and hold accountable the personnel responsible for this act of brutality.”

In the statement signed by the vicar pastoral, Father James Yaro, and the chancellor, Father Simon Akuraga, the diocese also urged the governor of Taraba state, which the diocese covers, to ensure a thorough investigation into the matter is conducted and appropriate action taken. 

“We demand the immediate return of Father Bernard’s confiscated phone and appropriate compensation for Cornelius Terhemen, whose eye was permanently damaged due to the assault,” the officials of the diocese said.

They added: “The Catholic Diocese of Wukari remains committed to supporting and collaborating with the government to ensure peace and stability in our communities.”

“As a law-abiding institution, we believe in the institution of government and anticipate prompt and decisive action from the government on this matter,” they said.

This article was first published by ACI Africa, CNA’s news partner in Africa, and has been adapted by CNA.

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Easter holiday is canceled then restored in heavily Christian Indian state

March 28, 2024 Catholic News Agency 0
St. Paul’s Church, in Imphal, capital of Manipur state, after the church was set on fire in 2023. / Credit: Anto Akkara

Bangalore, India, Mar 28, 2024 / 12:30 pm (CNA).

After Indian officials’ announcement that Easter Sunday would be a “working day” this year was met with widespread protests from Christians, the governor of the state of Manipur in northeast India issued a statement reestablishing the annual holiday.

The March 28 reversal by the Manipur government, which is led by the Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) came within 24 hours after Manipur Gov. Anusuiya Uikey canceled the Easter holiday.

“In partial modification of the government order … dated 27th March, 2024, the governor of Manipur is pleased to declare that only the 30th March 2024 [Saturday] will be working day for all government offices,” the order read.

The previous day the government had announced that “the governor of Manipur is pleased to declare 30th [Saturday] and 31st [Sunday] March 2024 as working days for all government offices.”

Christians account for nearly half of Manipur’s population of 3.7 million. 

Archbishop Linus Neli, who heads the 100,000-strong Catholic Church in the state, told CNA that the Church had protested the cancellations of the Easter holiday to government officials. 

“We are storming the competent authority, awaiting reply,” Neli said.

A half an hour later, the archbishop shared with CNA the government’s “revised order regarding [Easter] working day.”

Tribal dancers waiting their turn at the celebration following the installation Mass of the new archbishop of Imphal Archdiocese, Linus Neli. Credit: Anto Akkara
Tribal dancers waiting their turn at the celebration following the installation Mass of the new archbishop of Imphal Archdiocese, Linus Neli. Credit: Anto Akkara

Prior to that, several Christian groups including those in Manipur had called for the cancellation of the order that stunned the Christians across the country.

“The decision to declare these sacred days as regular working days is not only insensitive but also disrespectful towards the religious sentiments of the significant portion of the population in Manipur,” lamented the Senapati District Catholic Union of Manipur in its condemnation of the governor’s order on the morning of March 28.

Of the 3.7 million Christians in Manipur state, 26% are ethnic Naga tribals, 16% are members of Kuki tribes, and more than 10% of the nearly 2 million Meiteis have also embraced the Christian faith in Manipur.

“By compelling government offices to operate on these holy days, the order not only disregards the religious rights of the Christian community but also fails to recognize the cultural diversity and religious pluralism that should be upheld and respected in democratic society,” the Senapati district Catholic forum pointed out.

“Height of insanity of the Manipur government,” a Christian pastor from Manipur who runs a theological college outside Manipur told CNA.

“What is happening is Manipur is nothing new,” John Dayal, an outspoken Catholic columnist and activist, told CNA.

“The BJP governments both at the national level and in several states had tried to insult and tinker with Christian holy days like Christmas, Good Friday, and Easter several times in the past,” Dayal pointed out.

“In 2002, I moved the Delhi High Court successfully against the bid to make Good Friday and Easter Sunday ‘working days’ against the Atal Behari Vajpayee [who was the BJP prime minister then],” said Dayal, a former member of the National Integration Council headed by the prime minister.

“This Manipur move is keeping with [Prime Minister] Modi’s consistent scheme to whittle away rights of Christianity and Islam in new ‘Bharat.’” (Bharat is the new name the Hindu nationalist BJP has proposed for India).

Since May 2023, Manipur has seen a protracted violent clash between the majority Meiteis, most of them Hindus, and the minority Kukis (all of them Christians) that has left more than 230 dead by the official conservative death toll. Over 50,000 Kuki Christians have been chased out from the Imphal valley along with over 10,000 Meiteis who were driven out from Kuki strongholds.

Amid the violence, over 600 churches have also been destroyed. The majority of them were Kuki, but 250 Meiti Christian churches were destroyed as well in what is seen as an attempt to stop Meiteis from embracing the Christian faith. 

Meanwhile, in another piece of good news for the Christian community, Carmelite Sister Mercy, who had been arrested on a charge of “abetting the suicide” of a sixth-grade girl at the Carmel School in Ambikapur in central Chattisgarh state, was released on bail on March 28 by the trial court.

The girl student committed suicide at home after the nun had questioned her and two other girls for being together in the bathroom for a long period of time. After other students complained to the nun, she asked the girls to bring the parents to school the next day.

Following the suicide of the girl, Hindu nationalist organizations promptly organized a huge crowd to march to the school. Police were brought in and arrested the nun the next morning. Although the large crowd tried to storm the school on Feb. 8, police prevented an arson attack.

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Incidents of violence and persecution against Christians shoot up in India

March 27, 2024 Catholic News Agency 1
Catholic faithful offer prayers during an Ash Wednesday Mass at St. Mary’s Basilica in Secunderabad, the twin city of Hyderabad in India on Feb. 14, 2024. / Credit: NOAH SEELAM/AFP via Getty Images

Bangalore, India, Mar 27, 2024 / 14:00 pm (CNA).

A watchdog group that monitors violence committed against Christians in India has released a study documenting 161 such crimes in the first 75 days of 2024.

These numbers may underestimate the number of crimes and acts of persecution committed against Christians in India, according to A.C. Michael, a Catholic and coordinator of the United Christian Forum (UCF), which released the report. 

“These figures are based only on the complaints registered on our toll-free helpline number (1-800-208-4545) to report incidents of anti-Christian violence. The actual numbers will be certainly much more,” Michael told CNA on March 27.

“We feel frustrated that despite documenting and making public the shocking data regularly, there has been no response from the government nor any effort has been made to curb the steadily rising number of violent incidents,” he said.

Categorizing the 161 incidents, Michael listed 71 cases of detainment/arrest by the police, 18 incidents of social ostracization, 72 cases of physical violence, 15 cases of forced “reconversion,” one incident of a church being sealed, and another in which a church was torched, with mob violence being part of most of these incidents.

Violence and persecution against minority Christians, who account for only 2.3% of India’s 1.41 billion people (nearly 80% of whom are Hindu), have been on a steady rise since the Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) rose to power under the stewardship of Prime Minister Narendra Modi after winning the 2014 national election. In May 2019, the BJP was reelected with an increased majority.

UCF had recorded only 147 incidents of violence against Christians in 2014, Michael said. The number of incidents went up to 177 in 2015, 208 in 2016, 240 in 2017, 292 in 2018, 328 in 2019, 279 in 2020, 505 in 2021, 599 in 2022, and 731 in 2023.

The UCF statement also highlighted the victimization of Christians in BJP-ruled Chhattisgarh state in central India, which reported “incidents with dignity of burial rights denied to Christian families.”

“Chhattisgarh, a state notoriously known for social ostracization of Christians, is the No. 1 leading state in assaults against Christians with 47 incidents of reported violence,” the UCF pointed out.

“Christians are being denied access to water from the community borewells of the village. Sadly, even dead Christians are not spared, as many were denied burial as per Christian rituals. Local [Hindu fundamentalist] villagers have been threatening to cremate the bodies as a final act of reconversion,” UCF decried.

Such blatant attacks on the Christians, Michael said, are rooted in BJP leaders’ anti-Christian rhetoric. He noted that Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Vishnu Deo Sai accused “Christian missionaries of carrying out religious conversion under the guise of providing education and health care facilities while warning to stop the practice.”

But, Michael pointed out, Christians in Chhattisgarh account for just 2% of the state’s 25 million people.

The UCF statement also highlighted the persecution of Christians in BJP-ruled northern Uttar Pradesh, which has a population of 231 million and “ranks second [among] states where Indian citizens are being persecuted for practicing Christianity.” 

“There is clear evidence of state-sponsored harassment of Christians in this state as the police file false allegations of conversion against the pastors even for praying in birthday parties and other social gatherings. UCF helpline has recorded over 30 incidents of arrests and detentions of pastors under the UP Freedom of Religion Act,” the Christian Forum noted.

CNA has reported in detail how Father Babu Francis, social service director of Allahabad Diocese in Uttar Pradesh state, was jailed for over 80 days after being arrested on charges of false conversion in early October. 

Similarly, CNA also reported about how Father Dominic Pinto, director of the Pastoral Centre of Lucknow Diocese, was arrested in February on a false conversion charge. Pinto was released on bail on March 13. 

Of the 161 incidents recorded in the first 75 days of 2024, UCF pointed out: “There are 122 Christians who have either been detained or arrested on the false allegation of conversions.”

The UCF data was released on the eve of the March 22 National Day of Prayer that the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of India (CBCI) called for in the wake of increasing atrocities against Christians and religious polarization in the country. 

Thousands of churches across the country held special prayers on the day with special holy hours, rosaries, and Stations of Cross in response to the CBCI appeal for “peace and harmony.”

Meanwhile, the 2023 year report of the Religious Liberty Commission of Evangelical Fellowship of India expressed anguish over “the alarmingly steep rise in the number of violent incidents against the Christian community.”

“The Indian political apparatus, its law enforcement agencies, and its justice system, specially at the level of villages and small towns, have been found wanting and slow in its responses despite urgent pleas for help from victims, church leaders, and civil society,” the report lamented.

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Hong Kong activist: Proposed law could worsen religious liberty, persecute Catholics

February 13, 2024 Catholic News Agency 1
Hong Kong.Hong Kong media tycoon and founder of Apple Daily newspaper Jimmy Lai Chee Ying arrives at the West Kowloon Magistrates’ Court, May 18, 2020. / Credit: Yung Chi Wai Derek/Shutterstock

Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Feb 13, 2024 / 16:15 pm (CNA).

A religious freedom advocate from Hong Kong is warning that proposed legislation could further restrict religious liberty and lead to the persecution of the Catholic Church and other Christians. 

Frances Hui, a Hong Kong native who has political asylum in the United States, expressed concern about the possible enactment of the controversial proposal Article 23, which would expand a 2020 national security law. She made these comments during a Hudson Institute panel discussion on “The Repression of Hong Kong and Heroism of Jimmy Lai.”

Lai, a pro-democracy journalist and convert to Catholicism, was arrested on several charges under Hong Kong’s 2020 national security law and could face life in prison. His newspaper, Apple Daily, frequently published material critical of the Chinese Communist Party. Although the Chinese government charged him with colluding with foreign forces, critics of the prosecution claim that he — and hundreds of other political and religious dissidents — were arrested for their activism. 

If enacted, Article 23 would expand the law to bolster the government’s crackdown on political dissidents, which has been ongoing for more than three and a half years.

The change would add new offenses, including a prohibition on external interference in Hong Kong, a prohibition on supporting external intelligence organizations, and a prohibition on electronic and computer activities without lawful authority that endangers national security, along with a prohibition on general sabotage activities, according to the Hong Kong Free Press. 

Hui, who serves as the policy and advocacy coordinator at the Committee for Freedom in Hong Kong Foundation, said during the panel that the legislation would “target foreign organizations [and] their activities in Hong Kong,” which could be used against foreign Christian missionaries and Hong Kong Catholic Church communications with the Vatican.

“A lot of the small- to medium-scale church groups, the Catholic Church, and foreign missionaries would all be affected,” Hui said. 

“We don’t know how they’re going to use this law to go against religious groups, but having this law passed and imposed in Hong Kong would be a great threat to religious groups in Hong Kong,” she added. “They are subject to legal prosecution. … The Catholic Church in Hong Kong … might have to stop their communication with the Vatican because it’s a foreign state.” 

In such a scenario, Hui warned that the Catholic Church in Hong Kong could be forced to join the Catholic Patriotic Association, which the communist government established in 1957 to exert government control of Catholic churches in mainland China.

“We don’t know how they’re going to use this because it’s another vaguely written law, but … if they don’t like what you’re doing and they have targeted you, they have the law at their disposal to use that to threaten you and put you in jail,” Hui said.

The legislation was first proposed more than 20 years ago in 2002, but the effort was rejected after widespread backlash from the people of Hong Kong, journalist associations, and Western governments. The effort, however, was revived by Hong Kong Chief Executive John Lee Ka-chiu in 2022. On Jan. 30, Lee began a one-month consultation period on the proposal. 

“I think this is something the world and the American government should pay attention to and [should] speak up against it,” Hui said.

Nearly 300 people in Hong Kong, including Lai, have been arrested since the government updated the national security law in 2020. Critics believe this is a crackdown on free speech and political opposition. 

“The biggest goal of [the national security law] is to stifle dissidents,” Hui said. “It has destroyed freedom of speech, freedom of assembly, and freedom of the press. It’s a very vaguely written law that pretty much applies to the whole civil society.” 

The United States Congressional Executive Commission on China has encouraged President Joe Biden’s administration to issue sanctions against the judges and prosecutors involved in Lai’s case and similar cases.

Member of the Wall Street Journal editorial board William McGurn, who is Lai’s godfather and has known him for decades, said during the panel that he believes Lai would also want people to not forget “the other people locked up that don’t have his name recognition or friendliness with Western reporters and politicians.” 

“I think … he stayed in Hong Kong to be with them to choose sides,” McGurn said. “Same with Cardinal [Joseph] Zen … [who] was not prosecuted under the national security charges [but] was on these other charges of organizing a group without official regulatory permission.” 

In November 2022, Zen was convicted on charges of failing to register a fund that helped pay for the legal fees and medical treatments of Hong Kong pro-democracy protesters. He has appealed that conviction.

The Committee for Freedom in Hong Kong Foundation published a report on Jan. 30 that found that religious freedom is “deteriorating” in the city amid a “hostile takeover” from the Chinese Communist Party. 

According to the report, Catholic and other Christian groups have faced accusations of supporting “violent protests” and colluding with “foreign organizations” under the 2020 national security law.

In addition to persecuting Christians, critics have accused the Chinese Communist Party of persecuting Uyghur Muslims and followers of Falun Gong, a religious and political movement.

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