Crux | Christopher White | March 4, 2020
A new study has found that while a majority of U.S. Catholics are concerned about the global persecution of Christians, there has been a noticeable decline of concern in the past two years.
The report was released on Monday by Aid to the Church in Need USA, an international papal charity which supports suffering Christians around the globe. The latest findings mark the third year in which the organization has commissioned the study, which was conducted by McLaughlin & Associates during February.
The latest findings reveal that while 59 percent of Catholics said they were “very concerned” about Christian persecution in 2019, only 52 percent of respondents expressed the same level of concern today.
According to the one thousand respondents, the overwhelming majority of whom self identified as either “somewhat” or “very” devout Catholics, 41 percent said that the that the persecution of Christians around the world is “severe,” while 50 percent consider it to be “somewhat severe.”
The survey also found that 42 percent of Catholics say that half or more of religiously-based attacks around the world are directed at Christians.
Also chronicled in this year’s survey is the fact that Christian persecution receives the lowest level of areas of global concern, ranking fourth behind human trafficking, poverty, climate change and the global refugee crisis.
In response to the latest data, Aid to the Church in Need president George Marlin said the decline was “disheartening” and he called on Christians to do more to raise awareness of what is happening to their fellow believers.
“While 52 percent of American Catholics show strong concern about the persecution of Christians, it is nevertheless disheartening to see the drop in their number compared to a year ago,” said Marlin in a statement. “It’s telling that US Catholics consider human trafficking, poverty, climate change, and the refugee crisis – as important as these issues are-to be more important than the persecution of Christians.”