About half of them have have left so far, says a report released by Christian advocacy groups Open Doors, Served, and Middle East Concern. Read more

Father Craig Butler said while crime which targeted churches was rare, the impact was widely felt among parishioners.

In June, a thief made off with five microphones and other electronic equipment, valued at $2382, from St Joseph's Church in Waitara.

Butler said while vandalism and theft were issues he had encountered in other churches he had worked at, it was important the buildings kept their doors unlocked.

"It's a sacred place which needs to be open so people can go and sit and pray," he said.

Butler said while parishioners were "not naive" about the security risk presented by leaving the doors ajar, it was an important element of the catholic faith that churches were a place where anyone in the community felt they could visit.

In fact, he said the presence of people acted as a human-powered surveillance system along with the rest of the neighbourhood, who could report any suspicious behaviour.

He said much of the church's property was priceless because of its spiritual worth, while other items were of sentimental value as they had been donated by families.

However, he hoped if people were driven to crime due to their circumstances they would consider reaching out to the church first, before they thought about ripping anybody off.

He said the church was able to provide support for families in crisis and people only needed to ask for help.

"We'd much prefer to have it done that way, rather than for people to steal from us," he said.

"We'd do anything we can to support them," he said.

Source

• stuff.co.nz
• Image: redbankgreen.com

British peer David Alton said this amounts to 200 million people in 60 countries.

Persecution ranged from murder, rape and torture to repressive laws, discrimination and social exclusion, he said in a Guardian article.

One consequence was "a form of religio-ethnic cleansing of Christian communities", said John Pontifex of Aid to the Church in Need (ACN), a Catholic campaign group that monitors persecution.

"The persecution of Christians is at a level we've not seen for many, many years and the main impact is the migration of Christian people," he said.

"There are huge swaths of the world which are now experiencing a very sharp decline in the number of Christians."

According to the Pew Research Center, Christians face harassment in 102 countries - more than any other religion.

ACN's 2014 report on religious freedom in the world said conditions had deteriorated in 55 countries, and significantly so in six countries: Iraq, Libya, Nigeria, Pakistan, Sudan and Syria.

Although Muslims "also face terrible and systematic persecution . . . and Jewish communities have also suffered increased threats and violence", Christians were by far the most persecuted faith group, the report said.

Open Doors, a global organisation monitoring Christian persecution, conservatively estimated that 4344 Christians were killed for faith-related reasons in 12 months up to November, 2014, and 1062 churches were attacked.

On his recent trip to Latin America, Pope Francis said he was dismayed "to see how in the Middle East and elsewhere in the world many of our brothers and sisters are persecuted, tortured and killed for their faith in Jesus".

He went on: "In this third world war, waged piecemeal, which we are now experiencing, a form of genocide is taking place, and it must end."

Sources

• The Guardian
• The Guardian
• Image: Examiner.com

After mapping the religious freedom situation around the world, Open Doors said as many as eight out of 10 states that have adopted repressive measures against Christians are Islamic.

It describes Islamic religious extremism as the number one cause of Christian persecution around the world.

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