BISHOP ROBERT BARRON: The war on Christians is real and the world can no longer stay silent
Christianity is, by an order of magnitude, the most persecuted religion in the world. Between 360,000,000 and 380,000,000 Christians face high degrees of hostility. Conservative estimates are that tens of thousands of Christians are killed annually for their faith, especially in places such as Nigeria, Burkina Faso, North Korea and China. But the murder, torture and imprisonment are taking place across the globe.
In many Western countries, a less lethal but still severe form of persecution is visited upon Christians by ideological secularists, who see Christianity as their principal intellectual and cultural opponent. In many ways, contemporary attacks on the faithful are a continuation of the anti-Christian violence of the 20th century, which produced more Christian martyrs than all previous centuries combined. However, the source of the animosity has shifted considerably. Whereas in the last century, hostility to Christianity came largely from depraved totalitarianism, largely secularist and materialist in orientation, today’s opposition comes, to a considerable degree, from militant forms of Islam in the Middle East, in Asia, but especially in Africa.
Why should Christianity in particular be the object of such opprobrium and violent opposition? We could certainly identify sociological, economic and political factors, but it mostly has to do with the Founder and his manner of death.
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It is instructive to remark upon the difference between the way Jesus died and the way many of the other great religious founders did. The Buddha passed away in old age, surrounded by his disciples, convinced that his spiritual movement had found success. Mohammed died in his bed after a brief illness, sure that his religion had spread throughout the Arabian Peninsula. Confucius died of old age peacefully in his bed. His many followers resolved to carry on his ethical teachings. The Bible says that Moses expired at the age of 120, having successfully led his people from slavery to the borders of the Promised Land.
And then there is Jesus. The founder of Christianity died at the age of 30 on a brutal instrument of torture with an animal cry of abandonment on his lips. All of his disciples, save one, denied, betrayed or abandoned him. And by all appearances, his religious revolution had proved a shipwreck. Why did this young rabbi die the way he did?
The simple answer is that he declared himself divine: some of the startling things he said include, "I and the Father are one;" "He who sees me sees the Father;" "Unless you love me more than your mother and your father, you are not worthy of me;" and "Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will never pass away."
One might be tempted to say, "Well, he was obviously deluded and got what he deserved." But what makes his story surpassingly strange is that the first proclaimers of the Christian faith didn't cover up the shame of the cross; on the contrary, they shouted it from the rooftops. St. Paul says, "I know one thing, Christ and him crucified!" They could have found such confidence only because God raised from death the one who had claimed to speak in his name and act in his person.
If he is who he said he is, then you should give your whole life to him; if he's not, you should oppose him. In a word, Jesus compels a choice in a way no other religious founder does. Didn't he himself say, "You are either with me or against me?" It is precisely the unnerving and radical claim about Jesus that has excited opposition up and down the centuries and that continues to animate resistance today.
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So, what can we do about the scandal of anti-Christian persecution?
I know that it is fashionable today to mock "thoughts and prayers," but believers understand that authentic prayer is incomparably powerful. St. John of Damascus defined prayer as "the raising of the mind and heart to God," which means that prayer is the way we link ourselves to the creative source of the world's existence. In the Bible, nothing of real moment is ever accomplished apart from this explicit connecting of the soul to God.
I remember vividly the night when Bishop Alfred Abramowicz, an auxiliary bishop of Chicago and a friend of John Paul II, told a room full of seminarians about the death of a heroic young Polish priest at the hands of the Communists. His gripping narrative was my first awakening to the fact of anti-Catholic persecution in my own time. So, subscribe to a trusted source such as Aid to the Church in Need, consult the web for updates and information, or perhaps invite a victim of persecution to address your church.
Support charities that rebuild churches and schools, provide food and medicine to the persecuted, and give funds to educate seminarians in countries experiencing anti-Christian hostility.
Believe me when I tell you that people undergoing persecution for their religion look to our political system as a model and a source of hope. If religious freedom can flourish in the most powerful nation in the world, then it can flourish anywhere. But if we allow it to be compromised here, we deeply discourage those who long for it abroad.
The persecution of Christians represents one of the greatest violations of human rights today. Those who hold freedom and human dignity dear cannot remain silent.
Editor's note: Bishop Robert Barron's latest book is "What Do Their Deaths Demand? Christian Persecution Today" (Word on Fire, April 13, 2026).