The Vatican Secretary of State decried the “appalling number of innocent persons that suffer persecution because of their beliefs, including many Christians” on Wednesday, noting that these violations “often occur with impunity and at times receiving little, if any, attention in the media.”
Cardinal Pietro Parolin, the Vatican’s number-two man, said that this persecution constitutes “an aggressive attack that strikes at the very core of the enjoyment of fundamental human rights” in an address at the symposium “Stand Together to Defend International Religious Freedom” organized by the United States Embassy to the Holy See in Rome.
Last month the international media gave top billing to the mosque attacks in Christchurch, New Zealand, while ignoring completely the Muslim slaughter of hundreds of Christians in Nigeria.
No major U.S. news outlet bothered to cover the attacks by Fulani jihadists against Christians in central Nigeria, who employed machetes and gunfire to slaughter men, women, and children, burning down over 140 houses, destroying property, and spreading terror.
Meanwhile, twelve French churches were vandalized in the period of just one week and the persecution of Christians in India jumped by a reported 57 percent, but neither of these stories was deemed worthy of significant media attention.
Ask me anything
Explore related questions
