ICC Note: A diplomat from the Vatican, Janusz Urbanczyk, spoke about the effects of discrimination against Christians in the West during a recent conference. Although deliberate acts of religiously motivated violence are uncommon in most Western countries, the bias and discrimination seen in many public outlets, such as the media, is undermining the rights of those who wish to openly practice their faith. It is important that bodies of government speak out to protect the religious rights of all citizens in order to maintain true religious freedom.

By James Macintyre

12/20/2016 Western World (Christian Today) – A Holy See diplomat has warned that Christians face insidious discrimination, even in the West and countries where they are not obviously persecuted against, the Catholic Herald has reported.

Mgr Janusz Urbanczyk, the Vatican’s permanent representative to the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), addressed a conference in Vienna on combating intolerance and discrimination against Christians across the OSCE region, which includes 57 countries in Europe, Central Asia and North America.

Urbanczyk said that even though the OSCE region does not see “blatant and violent persecution” of Christians as is witnessed in some parts of the world, “manifestations of intolerance, hate crimes and episodes of violence or vandalism against religious places or objects continue to increase”.

He added that “offending, insulting or attacking Christians because of their beliefs and their values, including in the media and in public debate, based on a distorted and misinterpreted concept of freedom of expression, often goes uncontested”.

This “worrying trend” involves “aggressively orchestrated actions, especially in the media and in public discourse, against Christians and all others who express peacefully their religious views, traditions and values”, he said.

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