From CatholicHerald:
... More than 100,000 Christians are killed each year because of their faith, and millions more face bigotry, intolerance and marginalisation because of their beliefs, a Vatican official has said.
Archbishop Silvano Tomasi, the Vatican’s permanent observer to US agencies in Geneva, told the Human Rights Council that “credible research” by Massimo Introvigne, a former representative of the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe, on combating intolerance and discrimination against Christians, “has reached the shocking conclusion that an estimate of more than 100,000 Christians are violently killed because of some relation to their faith every year”.
In addition, he said, “in some Western countries, where historically the Christian presence has been an integral part of society, a trend emerges that tends to marginalise Christianity in public life, ignore historic and social contributions and even restrict the ability of faith communities to carry out social charitable services”.
But in fact, Archbishop Tomasi said, “The Christian religion, as other faith communities,” serves the true good of humanity by educating members in their human dignity, their rights and responsibilities toward others and in serving their communities and the poor with schools, hospitals, homes for the aged, work in refugee camps and other acts of charity.
During a meeting in Tirana, Albania, last month, the secretary of the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace said: “Examples of intolerance and discrimination against Christians have not diminished, but rather increased” in member-states of the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe, which includes 57 countries in Europe, Central Asia and North America..........
Hilary White, Rome Correspondent, writing at LifeSiteNews:
.... In all, 15 European countries currently have laws on the books that effectively restrict the freedom of religious practice and speech of Christians, according to testimony at the annual meeting of the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), May 22 in Tirana, Albania.
Dr. Massimo Introvigne, an Italian sociologist and author said that Christians are the most persecuted group in the world, with one Christian being killed out of religious discrimination every five minutes, particularly in Islamic or Communist countries like North Korea.
OSCE is the world’s largest security-oriented intergovernmental organization.
“The most dangerous areas,” Introvigne said, “are those which limit the conscientious objection of Christians who do not want to cooperate in abortion, the sale of abortifacient pills, or the celebration of same-sex marriage.”
“In Europe, we have identified 14 laws that are likely to negatively affect the religious liberty of Christians in 15 countries,” he said. “Fortunately, Italy is not among them.”
In 2012, his group reported 169 rulings made in courts around Europe “that we judged to be dangerous to the freedom of Christians.”
Introvigne is the head of the Observatory on Religious Liberty established last year by the Italian Foreign Ministry and Mayor of Rome Gianni Alemanno.....
....“Statistically,” he said, “persecutions of Christians are the biggest ones but the media dedicate the least time to them.”....
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