Aboard the papal plane, 30 December, 2023 / 8:55 pm (ACI Africa).
Christians have been persecuted by adversarial groups since the time of the apostles, and in varied parts of the world Christians continue to face existential threats from governments and other entities.
On the Dec. 26 feast of St. Stephen, the first Christian martyr who died around 34 A.D., Pope Francis said in his Angelus that “2,000 years later, unfortunately, we see that the persecution continues.”
“There are still those, and there are many of them, who suffer and die to bear witness to Jesus, just as there are those who are penalized at various levels for the fact of acting in a way consistent with the Gospel, and those who strive every day to be faithful, without ado, to their good duties, while the world jeers and preaches otherwise,” the pontiff said.
Persecution worsening
Religious freedom is shrinking globally, according to multiple reports. A report from the watchdog group Open Doors found that the persecution of Christians is at its highest point in three decades. It found that some of the worst locations for Christians were North Korea, Somalia, Yemen, Eritrea, Libya, Nigeria, Pakistan, Iran, Sudan, and India.
