2012: 105,000 CHRISTIANS HAVE DIED FOR THEIR FAITH

According to statistics gathered by the Catholic Church, during the year 2012 around 105,000 Christians have died all over the world for their faith. This information was announced by the coordinator of the Observation Commission for Religious Freedom in Italy, Massimo Introvigne, Sedmizta.ru reported Friday.

The statistics provided by this expert are truly alarming—on the average, every five minutes a person dies in the world because he is a follower of Christ.

The researcher distinguished the most dangerous territories, which are for the most part located on the African continent: Nigeria, Somalia, and Mali, where people are plain afraid to come to church. Great risks also exist in Pakistan, certain regions of Egypt, countries where totalitarian communist regimes still exist today with North Korea at the fore, or countries that are in part under the influence of ethnic nationalists, such as India.

As for the causes of hatred toward Christians, the expert noted first of all the rule of aggressive ideologies “One one hand there are cruel persecutions, murders, and torture proceeding from specific ideologies; for example, the ideology of Islamic radical fundamentalism, the more aggressive versions of ethnic nationalism, and the old communist ideologies. There is also a difference between manifestations of intolerance as a given in certain cultures, and discrimination based on unjust legal actions, which we can see even Western countries, as the Pope of Rome noted in his Encyclical for Peace Day 2013,” noted Massimo Introvigne.

The expert also emphasized that the several days ago the Pope spoke to members of the Roman Curate that there is also a danger connected with a cultural dictatorship that forces specific ideologies, one of which is the “gender” ideology. “These ideologies obviously feel threatened by Christians and the Church, who speak out against them and therefore their lobby is initiating a campaign of intolerance and discrimination,” emphasized the Intovigne.