By CatholicVote | Created at 2025-01-15 23:31:12 | Updated at 2025-01-16 02:55:23
3 hours ago
CV NEWS FEED // Open Doors has released its 2025 World Watch List, spotlighting the most dangerous countries for Christians, with North Korea leading as the most hostile nation in the world for the 23rd consecutive year.
The list revealed that more than 380 million Christians worldwide — or 1 in 7— experience high levels of discrimination and violence for their faith.
Since last year’s report, North Korea’s systematic persecution of Christians has led to a worsening of its rating by 2 points, now standing at 98/100. Under Kim Jong Un’s dictatorship, individuals whose Christian faith is revealed in North Korea risk immediate execution or deportation to a brutal labor camp, where survival is rare.
Open Doors, an organization dedicated to supporting persecuted Christians, uses the World Watch List to raise awareness and advocate for religious freedom. The list is compiled from firsthand accounts and in-country investigations, offering a detailed picture of the global challenges facing Christians.
The report categorizes persecution into two types: “smash,” which involves visible violence such as killings, and “squeeze,” which includes structural and societal pressures like legal restrictions and harassment.
Key findings from the 2025 report include:
- 4,476 Christians killed for their faith globally, with 3,100 of these deaths in Nigeria (No. 7 on the World Watch List), where radicalized groups continue to target Christian communities.
- More than 54,000 Christians beaten, threatened, or abused, with significant incidents in Pakistan (No. 8) and Syria (No. 18), where 500 Christians were sexually assaulted, harassed or forcibly married to non-Christians.
- 209,771 Christians displaced, with more than 40,000 fleeing violence in Myanmar (No. 13)
- 4,744 believers were detained or sentenced, including more than 2,100 cases in India (No. 11)
>> How India’s anti-conversion laws enable persecution of Christian minority <<
The report said that following Jesus and speaking about Him has always come with a cost, a reality the early church fully understood.
“Today, the witness of the persecuted church comes at a similar cost,” the report said. “Persecuted Christians might not face ‘kings and governors,’ but they know what it is to live under the gaze of the authorities, to be hauled in front of judges, secret police, local councils, village chiefs, tribal elders, party officials, heads of clans or families.”
The report also calls attention to the increasing violence in sub-Saharan Africa, where weak governance and rising Islamic extremism have created a crisis for Christian communities, with 20,000 reported attacks on Christian homes, shops and businesses.
Countries such as Burkina Faso (No. 20), Mali (No. 14) and Chad (No. 49) have become new hotspots of persecution.
>> Priestly vocations in Burkina Faso grow despite persecution, terrorism <<
In regions with political unrest, such as Sudan (No. 5), Myanmar, and Yemen (No. 3), Christians are particularly vulnerable, with thousands forced to flee.
In authoritarian states like China (No. 15) and Algeria (No. 19), public worship has become nearly impossible, driving Christians underground.
The Open Doors report indicates that Christianity remains resilient and growing, even in the face of extreme oppression. In North Korea alone, where millions are facing severe persecution, an estimated 400,000 believers continue to practice their faith in secret.
“Despite persecution, nothing and no one can stop the church from growing,” said a secret Open Doors fieldworker in North Korea, according to the report.
Open Doors noted that prayers and support from the faithful around the world remind persecuted Christians that they are not alone in their struggle.
“They have, as Jesus promised, the presence of the Holy Spirit to strengthen them,” the report stated. “But they also gain strength from us — from knowing that their family is standing with them, praying with them, speaking up on their behalf, seeing things through their eyes and joining in with the task that Jesus gave us — of being a witness.”
