New Report: Less and less space for Christianity in today’s secularized Europe
(Vatican Radio) A new report issued by a human rights observatory says there is less
and less space for Christianity in Europe’s increasingly secularized society. In
its latest report, the Observatory on Intolerance and Discrimination against Christians
in Europe documented 241 cases of intolerance towards Christians across the continent
in 2013. The report said some European governments and players of civil society
are seeking to exclude Christianity, instead of accommodating it. Susy Hodges spoke
to the director of the Observatory, Dr Gudrun Kugler, to find out more about the
report’s findings. Listen to the full interview with Gudrun Kugler: Kugler said the
statistics they collected for the report seem to show an “increasing” number of anti-Christian
acts. In Belgium for instance, she said every day 2-3 Christian churches are being
vandalized or their contents are the object of theft and it’s a “similar” situation
for Germany and France where every day there’s at least one “hate-related attack against
a church or a Christian site.” Asked about the reasons for this intolerance towards
Christians, Kugler said there are many factors at play but she believes the growing
secularization of European society is a major reason. “The mainstream society in
Europe is becoming increasingly secularized and Christianity is fighting for its own
place (in society).” Kugler said this intolerance against Christians is both
“a social phenomenon” and a “legal” one with new laws that impact on individual religious
beliefs being drafted and passed in many countries. She told us she personally has
come face to face with an anti-Christian act. In Vienna where she lives, the famous
Church of St. Charles was recently “badly vandalized” when a group of people threw
paint against its historic façade. “We see the hatred behind these acts,” she said.