A European religious freedom group recorded 37 verified anti-Christian incidents across 11 countries during May 2026, including a sharp rise in arson-related attacks targeting churches, parish buildings, and religious items.
The Observatory on Intolerance and Discrimination against Christians in Europe (OIDAC Europe) said arson-related incidents accounted for 13 of the cases, the highest monthly total the group has recorded so far in 2026. Germany and Italy each recorded four arson-related incidents, while France recorded three. Ireland and the United Kingdom each recorded one.
Many of the cases involved fires set inside churches or parish buildings, suspected arson, or deliberate attacks on religious objects, according to the report.
The May incidents also included 10 cases of vandalism, three desecrations, three physical violence attacks, three thefts of religious objects, three combined vandalism-and-violence cases, one incitement, and one disruption of worship.
Germany recorded the highest number of incidents (10), followed by Italy and France with eight each. Poland recorded three incidents, Ireland recorded two, and Austria, Portugal, Spain, Greece, the United Kingdom, and Bosnia and Herzegovina each recorded one.
The report highlighted several serious cases, including an attack on a nun in Poland in which she was insulted and had a cross torn from her neck. In Innsbruck, Austria, two Catholic fraternity students were allegedly assaulted and seriously injured by left-wing extremists. In Hanau, Germany, attackers fired steel and plastic balls at a church during Mass with about 200 people inside, shattering windows. In Genoa, Italy, anti-clerical graffiti on the Basilica of San Siro included explicit calls to “burn churches.”
The report also pointed to sustained campaigns against Christian institutions. In Leipzig, Germany, a Christian-run café closed after operators documented 26 attacks over two and a half years, including repeated vandalism, graffiti, and damage from butyric acid – a corrosive chemical. The operators said the repeated attacks, which they attributed to far-left extremists, eventually made the café financially unviable.
In its conclusion, OIDAC Europe described the May incidents as part of a “continuing pattern of attacks affecting Christian places of worship, religious symbols, and Christian organisations across a broad range of European countries.”