ROME: The 2025 Aid to the Church in Need report warns of an unprecedented erosion of a fundamental human right.
The pontifical foundation Aid to the Church in Need (ACN) has released the 2025 edition of its biennial report Religious Freedom in the World, a comprehensive assessment of the state of freedom of religion and belief across the globe. Covering the period from January 2023 to December 2024, the report delivers a stark warning: more than two-thirds of the world’s population—over 5.4 billion people—live in countries where religious freedom is not fully guaranteed.
The study examines 196 nations and identifies serious violations in 62 of them. Among these, 24 are classified as countries of persecution, while 38 fall into the category of discrimination. Only Kazakhstan and Sri Lanka have shown tangible improvement since the last edition.
“The right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion, enshrined in Article 18 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, is not merely under pressure—it is disappearing in many parts of the world,” said Regina Lynch, ACN’s International President. She also noted that this year marks the 25th anniversary of the report’s first publication.
The Authoritarian Grip
According to the report, authoritarianism remains the primary force behind the repression of religious freedom. In 19 of the 24 persecuting countries and in 33 of the 38 discriminatory ones, governments have adopted systematic policies aimed at controlling or suppressing religious life. In nations such as China, Iran, Eritrea, and Nicaragua, authorities rely on mass surveillance, restrictive laws, censorship, and arbitrary arrests to silence independent religious communities.
“Control of faith has become a tool of political power,” the report states, describing a growing ‘bureaucratisation of repression’—a methodical, administrative machinery used to neutralise spiritual autonomy.
Extremism and Ethno-Religious Nationalism
Alongside authoritarian control, the report identifies Islamist extremism and ethno-religious nationalism as key sources of persecution. In 15 countries, extremist groups are the principal drivers of violence, while in another ten they contribute to widespread discrimination.
The Sahel region has become the epicentre of jihadist violence. Groups such as the Islamic State – Province of the Sahel and the JNIM have devastated communities across Burkina Faso, Niger, and Mali, leaving hundreds of thousands dead and millions displaced. Entire Christian villages have been wiped from the map.
In Asia, nationalism intertwined with religion has taken a more insidious form. In India and Myanmar, Christian and Muslim minorities face what ACN calls a “hybrid persecution”: a blend of discriminatory laws and civilian violence encouraged by political rhetoric. The result is a climate of fear and marginalisation where legal exclusion and street-level hostility feed one another.
War, Migration and Organised Crime
The global decline in religious freedom has been further exacerbated by war and instability. Conflicts in Myanmar, Ukraine, Russia, Israel, and Palestine have deepened divisions and created what ACN calls “a silent crisis of displacement.”
In Nigeria, attacks by radicalised Fulani militias have killed thousands and forced entire communities to flee. Across the Sahel, extremist violence continues to destroy villages and churches, while in Sudan, the civil war has erased centuries-old Christian communities.
The report also points to a newer threat: organised crime. In Mexico and Haiti, criminal gangs are targeting religious leaders and institutions—murdering, kidnapping, and extorting them to maintain territorial control.
The West Is Not Immune
The erosion of religious freedom is not confined to developing nations. In 2023, France recorded nearly a thousand attacks on churches. Greece saw more than six hundred incidents of vandalism. Spain, Italy, and the United States experienced a similar rise in acts of desecration, aggression against clergy, and disruptions of religious ceremonies.
ACN warns that these episodes reflect a growing ideological hostility toward religion in Western societies. The report also documents a dramatic rise in antisemitic and anti-Muslim acts following the October 7 attacks and the outbreak of the Gaza war. In France, antisemitic incidents surged by nearly one thousand percent, while hate crimes against Muslims rose by almost thirty percent. In Germany, more than four thousand incidents were reported in 2023, compared to just sixty-one the previous year.
“We Cannot Accept Such Hostility”
At the presentation of the report, Cardinal Pietro Parolin, the Vatican’s Secretary of State, addressed the growing intolerance faced by Christians in the Middle East and the Holy Land.
“The situation is complex,” he said, “but we cannot understand why Christians who simply live their normal lives should face such hostility. We cannot accept this.”
A Shrinking Space for Faith
The Religious Freedom in the World 2025 report portrays a sobering reality: the space for faith, conscience, and belief is shrinking across continents. Authoritarian regimes use surveillance and legislation to control it; extremists and criminal groups weaponise violence to eradicate it; and even in liberal democracies, social polarisation fuels contempt for religious expression.
What began as isolated repression has evolved into a global crisis of conscience. As ACN notes, the denial of freedom to one faith often precedes its denial to all others.
The report calls on governments, civil society, and international institutions to recognise that defending religious freedom is not a sectarian cause—it is the cornerstone of human dignity and a prerequisite for peace.
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