Religious Freedom

The church in Nigeria, ravaged by kidnappings of clergy, mourns Father Mathew Eya, killed Sept. 19 as he was returning to his parish of St. Charles in Eha-Ndiagu, in Enugu state.

French Christians are reeling after the brutal murder of Ashur Sarnaya, a 45-year-old disabled Iraqi Chaldean Catholic, stabbed in the throat outside his Lyon apartment.

The pontifical charity Aid to the Church in Need expressed its “deep concern and solidarity” with the families of the victims of a brutal attack carried out on the night of Sept. 8-9 in Ntoyo in the area of St. Joseph of Manguredjipa Catholic Parish, which is in the Congolese province of North Kivu.

Religious freedom violations are an early warning sign of where mass atrocities could occur around the globe, a new report from the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom said.

Attacks on the Catholic Church in Nicaragua have fallen in 2025, but a report on church persecution in the Central American county attributes the decline to few priests and religious reporting the crimes and harassment committed against them and church property.