It is true that Christians are the most persecuted. In some countries, they are persecuted with violence, including the burning of churches, and the killing of priests and lay people.
In many more countries, including Australia, they are persecuted with attitudes and laws that erode progressively their freedom to speak out publicly and live by their religious values.
On 3 March 2026, Archbishop Ettore Balestrero, the permanent observer of the Holy See to the United Nations, in an address titled “Standing with Persecuted Christians: Defending the Faith and Christian Values,” told a meeting in Geneva that Christians are the most persecuted community in the world.
He said that in 2025 alone “almost 5,000 faithful were killed for their faith,” the equivalent of 13 people a day. It is known that some 4,000 of these were in Nigeria, many of them at the hands of the jihadist militant group Boko Haram in the north of the country. “Almost 400 million Christians worldwide face persecution or violence, making them the most persecuted religious community in the world,” the archbishop told Vatican News.
He said that the victims “are martyrs in the etymological sense of the term,” because they are witnesses “to their creed who embody values that challenge the logic of power.” The Greek word “martyr’ means precisely “witness”.
The Open Doors World Watch List 2026, the latest of 30 years of lists of countries where there is persecution of Christians, puts North Korea as the worst in the world. There is no freedom of religion in the country, and if Christians are discovered, they and their families are deported to labour camps or they are killed on the spot. If they gather to worship God or to pray, they do so in utmost secrecy, in fear for their lives. This is no different from the situation of the early Christians in Rome, who had to take refuge in the catacombs or other secret locations to worship God.
Somalia comes second on the list, followed by Yemen, Sudan, Eritrea, Syria, Nigeria and Pakistan. The three countries in which there is most violence against Christians are the African nations of Sudan, Nigeria and Mali. But apart from violence, the World Watch List ranking considers other forms of persecution and discrimination, including the effects on private life, family life, community life, national life and church life.
In his address in Geneva, Archbishop Balestrero too said that persecution does not always take the form of murder and physical violence. There are also “more subtle and often silent forms of persecution,” such as gradual marginalisation or exclusion from social and professional life, “even in traditionally Christian countries.” He explained that this more subtle persecution manifests itself through less visible restrictions and limitations, “through which legal norms and administrative practices restrict or, in effect, nullify the legally recognised rights of the predominantly Christian population, even in some parts of Europe.”
In countries like Australia, where there is freedom of worship, the discrimination more often takes the form of ridicule and of legislation that prevents Christians from upholding their values in public life. This is especially the case when traditional Christian beliefs on such issues as the right to life from conception until natural death, the sanctity of marriage between a man and a woman, same-sex relationships, the creation of human beings as male and female, and many others conflict with the contemporary culture. Speaking out on these issues can result in the loss of one’s reputation or even of employment. In many places a Christian cannot pray outside an abortion clinic or arrange counselling for a person with gender dysphoria. Parents who do not allow their child to transition to the opposite sex may have the child taken away and put in foster care. And faith-based schools may not be able to require staff to uphold their religious values. The list goes on.
