The 2025 Report of the Pontifical Foundation, Aid to the Church in Need was presented in Rome. According to the data, over 5.4 billion people live in nations where the right to freely profess their faith is systematically denied. The data is shocking: “Two-thirds of humanity live in countries where religious freedom is not fully guaranteed. If we were to line up one by one those men, women, and children who are prevented from praying, expressing their beliefs publicly, or who are even murdered because of their faith, we would have before us a boundless army: over 5.4 billion people denied a right, not a privilege.”
The cause of religious repression appears to be authoritarianism: “Governments use mass surveillance technologies, digital censorship, unjust legislation, and arbitrary arrests to target independent religious communities.” Control over faith has become an instrument of political power. The organizers of Aid to the Church in Need, for the first time, have launched a global petition, calling on “governments and international organizations to ensure the effective protection of Article 18 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which recognizes everyone’s right to freedom of thought, conscience, and religion.”