Anti-Christianity

The expression "persecuted Christians" usually evokes the first three centuries of the Christian era, when the Roman Empire killed countless people for the "crime" of being Christians. Apart from local incidents, during those centuries Christians suffered ten great persecutions by pagan Rome. The first great persecution (years 64-68) was that of Emperor Nero and the tenth (years 303-311), which was the greatest, was that of Emperors Diocletian and Galerius.

Christian Martyrs

However, throughout the history of the Church, there have been many martyrs, i.e. Christians who have died in odium fidei (for hatred of the faith) and in recent centuries the number of Christian martyrs exceeded that of the Ancient Ages.

The French Revolution killed, imprisoned, exiled or deported to penal colonies many thousands of Catholic priests, and suppressed Catholic worship for years. As a result, between 1793 and 1796 there was a popular uprising in the French region of the Vandée. The Vandeans took up arms to resist the persecution of the Catholic faith. The revolutionary authorities not only defeated the Vandeans but also annihilated a large part of the civilian population of the Vandée. It was the first modern genocide. Although these atrocities of the Great Revolution are very well documented, the "official" histography still tries to deny, minimize or hide them.

Today's Anti-Christian Persecutions

The twentieth century was by far the one that produced the greatest number of Christian martyrs. Because of the vastness of the subject, I will only mention here six of the greatest anti-Christian persecutions of that century:

• The Armenian Genocide (1915-1923): more than 1.5 million Christian Armenians were massacred by order of the Young Turks (a group of liberals and Freemasons) during the final stage of the Ottoman Empire and the beginning of the Republic of Turkey.
• The anti-Catholic persecution in Mexico (1917-1929): This too was of Masonic imprint. Many priests were shot for celebrating the sacraments, and many rebellious Catholics (the "cristeros") were eliminated not only on battlefields but also after laying down their arms in obedience to the bishops.
• The Holodomor or Ukrainian genocide (1932-1934): millions of Ukrainians (mostly Christians) died in a famine artificially created by Stalin's communist regime.
• Anti-Catholic persecution in Spain, before and during the Civil War (1936-1939): the Republican side murdered at least 6,832 priests, bishops, religious men and women, and many thousands of Catholic lay faithful, as well as raping thousands of nuns and burning hundreds of churches and convents.
• Nazi persecution (1933-1945): About 3,000 Catholic priests, bishops, men and women religious (some 10,700 of them Polish) were interned by the Nazis in the Dachau concentration camp, and another 5,000 were imprisoned in other Nazi concentration camps. Nearly half died there. The young German Christians of the White Rose group developed nonviolent resistance against the Nazi regime and suffered harsh persecution.
• Communist persecution in the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe (1927-1991): it is impossible for me to summarize this enormous, terrible and continuous anti-Christian persecution. Catholics suffered very harsh persecution especially in Lithuania, Ukraine, Hungary, Czechoslovakia, Romania and Albania.

In the 21st century, Christians continue to be persecuted, especially in four geographical areas

1. in North Africa and West Asia by radical Islamists.
2. in the Far East by the remaining communist regimes.
3. in India by Hindu extremists
4. in the West, bloodlessly, by secularists (liberal or progressive). I will elaborate on the first two cases.

Persecution of Christians by communist regimes

With regard to the second case, I can only say that the task of liquidating the totalitarianisms of the 20th century will not be completed as long as the Communist regime in China continues to exist, seeking first the subjugation and then the destruction of all religious cults, especially Christianity. The anti-Christian persecution continues at full speed in China and is today supported by an Orwellian electronic surveillance system. Now the iron curtain of an Orwellian electronic surveillance system.

Now the Chinese iron curtain is enclosing Hong Kong, which until very recently was a relative oasis of freedom. All this is happening amidst the overwhelming silence of the once Christian West and the indifference or passivity of the majority of China's heroic Christian brothers and sisters in faith.