POPE MAKES STATEMENT | CHRISTIANITY UNDER ATTACK

Pope Leo XIV sounds alarm on the extreme upward trend of Christian persecution around the world. 

Church of England's woke reckoning: Christians across the UK express concern at the faith being hijacked and politicised by the far Left.

As the world grapples with an unrelenting tide of violence against the faithful, Pope Leo XIV has issued a stark warning on the erosion of religious freedom. In an address to Aid to the Church in Need on 10 October 2025, the pontiff declared that the right to practise one's faith is "not optional but essential", decrying a surge in hostilities and violence against believers of differing convictions. This comes at a pivotal moment, with the Vatican preparing Jubilee events to honour modern martyrs – those Christians slain for their faith in the past quarter-century – as beacons of unyielding hope. The Pope's call for international action underscores a grim reality: roughly 13 Christians are killed daily for their beliefs, and in the first 10 months of 2025 alone, an estimated 10,000 to 11,000 have been slaughtered worldwide simply for professing Christ.

Yet, even as the Holy See rallies against this barbarism – much of it driven by Islamist extremists, who dominate seven or eight of the top 10 nations for Christian persecution, echoing the ideology behind Hamas's atrocities against 1,500 Israelis on 7 October 2023 – Britain's own established church appears perilously adrift. The appointment of Dame Sarah Mullally as the first female Archbishop of Canterbury on 3 October has ignited fury among traditionalists, who see it as the latest capitulation to progressive fads. Hailed by Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer in an effusive government statement, the choice of a figure dubbed the "Archbishop of Woke" by critics has only deepened the rift. For a man who has candidly admitted his atheism – only to dust off a professed Christian identity when political expediency demands it, as during his September summit with President Donald Trump amid frantic post-election trade negotiations – Starmer's endorsement rings hollow. Pressed point-blank on whether Britain remains a Christian nation, the Prime Minister's evasive nod to "Christian heritage" smacked of opportunism, a far cry from the robust faith he once dismissed.

The omens were ominous from the outset. Barely two days into her tenure, Mullally greenlit an "art installation" at Canterbury Cathedral that plastered the ancient nave with simulated graffiti – scrawled questions to God from so-called marginalised voices, evoking urban decay rather than divine reverence. What the cathedral billed as a provocative dialogue has been lambasted as sacrilege by figures including US Vice-President JD Vance and Elon Musk, who decried the desecration of Britain's oldest Christian site. For traditional Christians, already reeling from the Church of England's drift towards identity politics, this was no mere aesthetic misstep but a blatant affront, symbolising a leadership more attuned to cultural vogues than to the Gospel's timeless truths. Conservative Anglican bodies like Gafcon have voiced "sorrow" at the appointment, warning of schism in a communion already fractured by such innovations.

This internal malaise in Lambeth Palace contrasts sharply with the external tempests battering the faithful. Consider the slaughter in Mayba, Democratic Republic of the Congo, on 13 February 2025, where Allied Democratic Forces militants – affiliates of the Islamic State – herded 70 Christians into a church and hacked them to death with machetes and hammers. The victims, men, women and children, had been roused from sleep with barked orders to flee silently. Rescue attempts faltered as the jihadists encircled the village, seizing more captives. An elder from a nearby parish captured the despair: "We do not know what to do or how to pray; we have had enough of massacres. May God's will alone be done."

Nor is such savagery confined to distant frontiers; it has pierced the heart of the West too. On 10 September 2025, conservative activist Charlie Kirk, the young founder of Turning Point USA, was brutally murdered at Utah Valley University – his throat blown out by a shotgun blast mid-debate, right before the eyes of his horrified wife, Erika. (Whether their children witnessed the horror remains a merciful uncertainty amid the grief.) The accused assassin, Tyler Robinson, faces grave charges, but the true outrage unfolded online: self-proclaimed moral guardians celebrated the slaying of a man slain for daring to debate, while trolls swarmed Erika Kirk's social media with vicious mockery, turning tragedy into a spectacle of depravity. In a nation that once prized free speech, Kirk's blood cries out as a martyr's testament – hailed by some as a Christian warrior felled in the culture wars, jeered by others as just deserts.

Open Doors reports that the ADF's reign of terror in North Kivu has displaced thousands, razed homes and churches, and shuttered schools and clinics, forcing entire Christian hamlets to abandon their lands. In a nation where 90 per cent of the populace is Christian, such Islamist incursions along the eastern frontier expose the fragility of faith in extremis. The Voice of the Martyrs adds harrowing detail: abductions, forced conversions, and eyewitness accounts of unimaginable brutality against brethren who refuse to renounce Christ.

Globally, the pattern endures. One in seven Christians faces persecution today, a statistic that echoes Solomon's weary wisdom: "That which has been is what will be, and there is nothing new under the sun" (Ecclesiastes 1:9). From Cain's fratricide against Abel (Genesis 4) to Jeremiah's torment at the hands of his own (Jeremiah 1:19; 15:18; 37:15), the prophets knew God's call invited enmity. Rome's emperors, Nero chief among them, fed believers to beasts or torched them as garden lamps. The Dark Ages and Reformation saw millions martyred for scriptural fidelity.

Even in the "land of the free", prophecy whispers of darker days. Revelation 13:15-17 envisions a beastly regime – some interpret it as a future American power – enforcing idolatrous marks for commerce, dooming dissenters to economic ruin or death. Britain's trajectory, under a Labour government blind to Islamist threats against Christians and Jews alike, offers no reassurance. While extremists – sharing the Hamas playbook – perpetrate these outrages, Starmer's cabal of Marxist-Islamist allies presses ahead with Islamophobia legislation, a February 2025 working group now forging definitions that risk muzzling criticism of the "religion of peace". Polls suggest such curbs could alienate voters, handing Reform UK a electoral windfall by stifling free speech on faith's front lines.

Preparation demands more than lament. Revelation 12:11 charts the path: victory through the Lamb's blood, bold testimony, and lives unsparing even unto death. As missionary Nate Saint averred amid peril, "We died before we came here" – a surrender to Christ that mocks mortal threats. Jesus bids us lose life for His sake to find it (Matthew 16:25), promising His presence "even to the end of the age" (Matthew 28:20). In an era of papal pleas and Anglican apostasy, British Christians must reclaim that resolve, lest the sun set on their witness.