Anti-Christian ideology on the rise in Europe, Vatican envoy tells OSCE

December 15, 2016

The Vatican’s representative to the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) has repeated a plea for action to curtail violence and discrimination against Christians.

Speaking at an OSCE conference in Vienna, Msgr. Janusz Urbanczyk reported that “manifestations of intolerance, hate crimes, and episodes of violence or vandalism against religious places or objects” are on the rise in the European region. He also observed that “offending, insulting, or attacks Christians” has become more common in the media and in public debates.

Msgr. Urbanczyk drew the attention of OSCE delegates to “aggressively orchestrated actions, especially in the media and public discourse,” against Christians. These attacks illustrate an ideological thrust, he argued, as Christians are attacked when they resist the imposition of a new secular morality:

This seems to be true in particular for those who defend human nature from being reduced to mere matter and from the new ideological colonization that invades human thought, under the pretence of virtue, modernity and new attitudes, and which is contemptuous of reality as God has created it. Freedom of expression on these issues seems to be threatened, and believers who share publicly their convictions are often labelled as intolerant or accused of bigotry.

 

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Further information:

• Vatican: States in the OSCE must protect the rights of Christians (Vatican Radio)
• Vatican envoy urges OSCE: recognize migrants' dignity, fight intolerance-- including anti-Christian bias (CWN, 6/9)