A monitoring report warns that Europe continues to see high levels of anti-Christian offenses, with more than 2,200 incidents documented across the continent in 2024. The findings, released by the Vienna-based Observatory on Intolerance and Discrimination Against Christians in Europe (OIDAC Europe), follow a year of similarly elevated figures in 2023 and point to continued violence, vandalism, and pressure on religious expression, aligning with the OSCE/ODIHR Hate Crime Data Report.
The report documented 2,211 anti-Christian offenses in 2024, including 274 personal attacks such as threats and physical assault. The number is slightly lower than the 2,444 cases recorded in 2023. However, researchers note this is likely due to missing data rather than an improvement in conditions, since some countries did not provide full-year data and others did not track certain categories of offenses.
In 2023, the OSCE and European governments together logged 1,230 anti-Christian hate crimes, up from 1,029 in 2022.
The report identifies France, the United Kingdom, Germany, and Spain as the countries with the largest number of incidents.
France saw serious cases, including an arson attack that nearly destroyed a historic church in Saint-Omer, vandalism of more than 50 graves with Islamist slogans, and an arrest linked to a failed terror attack involving Notre-Dame Cathedral inspired by the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS).
Germany recorded 337 anti-Christian crimes, a 22% rise from the previous year. It also reported 33 arson attacks, the most of any European country.
Spain experienced one of the year’s most gruesome cases: the killing of a 76-year-old monk in a monastery in November.
In Istanbul, Turkey, an ISIS-linked shooting during Sunday Mass killed a worshipper in January.
Across Europe, a total of 94 arson attacks were reported in 2024, almost twice as many as in 2023.
Investigators were able to identify motives in 93 incidents. These included:
- 35 linked to radical Islamist ideology
- 19 connected to radical left-wing groups
- 7 tied to radical right-wing actors
- 11 involving other political motives
- 15 featuring satanic symbols or references
In addition to violent attacks, OIDAC found “discrimination against Christians in the workplace and in public life in some European countries, leading to increasing self-censorship among Christians in Europe,” their website states.
The findings were presented to the European Parliament, where lawmakers Bert-Jan Ruissen and Miriam Lexmann called for stronger EU-level action. They urged the creation of a European coordinator focused on anti-Christian discrimination, improved data collection by member states, and new funding for prevention and security measures.
“Attacks on Christians and discrimination against Christians in Europe get little attention,” the lawmakers said, “but the figures are alarming.”
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