Since the 2025 conclave, Leo has championed immigration, climate justice, and all of the other progressive social priorities of his heretical predecessor, Jorge Bergoglio.
What he has been scandalously less vocal about, considering the massive scale of the atrocities, is the persecution and martyrdom of Christians in Africa.
Christ’s words in Matthew 25:40 are as follows: “As you did it to one of the least of these my brethren, you did it to me.” These raise some uncomfortable questions about Leo’s charity for his neighbors.
By October 2026, according to Open Doors’ 2026 World Watch List, 4,849 Christians had been killed for their beliefs worldwide, an increase from 4,476 the previous year. Of these, 4,491 — an astonishing 93%— were killed in sub-Saharan Africa. Nigeria alone accounted for 3,490 deaths, up from 3,100 the previous year.
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Globally, Open Doors recorded 3,302 Christian kidnappings, 4,712 detentions, 3,632 attacks on churches and Christian properties, and 5,202 cases of sexual violence, forced marriage or related abuse. Another 224,129 Christians were forced from their homes, compared with 209,771 previously.
The organization also estimates that 388 million Christians face serious persecution or discrimination, including one in five being in Africa. It is important to note, however, that these figures are estimates covering all “Christian denominations” (i.e. Protestants, etc.) and are not independently verified Catholic-only totals.
Misplaced priorities in the Vatican
While he has not been completely silent, Leo has devoted disproportionately more attention to virtue-signalling his support for ethnic replacement, climate issues, and other “woke” social issues.
Both his 2025 and 2026 messages for the World Day of Migrants and Refugees called for solidarity, integration, and greater protection for displaced people. His October 2025 apostolic exhortation Dilexi te also devoted considerable attention to poverty and migration.
Considering that the opening phase of a new pontiff is usually devoted to defining the priorities that will characterize it, it is downright scandalous that the murder of 93% of Christians killed for their faith worldwide has not received greater, or at least equal, attention by Leo.
The implications of this negligence are tragic. Are Catholics to conclude, for instance, that the Synodal Church is so obsessed with maintaining its ecumenical credentials that it has turned its back on those with whom it claims to share the same faith in Christ?
The Dispatch
Although the figures reported above do not refer exclusively to Catholic victims, the existing statistics concerning Catholic clergy are nothing less than horrifying.
According to research by the Nigerian Catholic bishops published by Aid to the Church in Need in December 2025, 212 Catholic priests were kidnapped between 2015 and 2025. Of these, 183 escaped or were released, 12 were murdered, and three subsequently died from captivity-related injuries or trauma. What’s more, kidnappings were recorded in 41 of Nigeria’s 59 dioceses and archdioceses. The Diocese of Okigwe alone suffered 47 cases, followed by Port Harcourt with 14 and Nsukka with 13.
But this is not the whole story. 18 dioceses never submitted data, and incidents involving religious congregations were excluded. Worldwide, 19 priests, seminarians, and religious sisters were killed in 2025, compared with 13 in 2024. These crimes were not confined to only the clergy but also extended to the lay faithful.
Disturbingly, in June 2025, approximately 200 displaced people were massacred at a Catholic mission in Yelwata, Benue State, and in November 2025, more than 300 people, predominantly children, were abducted from a Catholic boarding school in Niger State. While it is true that not every incident is demonstrably religiously motivated, the fact remains that Catholic institutions have become extraordinarily vulnerable.
Further attacks by extremists
On February 25, 2024, 15 Catholics were murdered during Sunday prayers in Burkina Faso. Over a two-day period in July 2025, Islamic State-affiliated militants attacked a Catholic parish in Komanda, Democratic Republic of the Congo, killing more than 40, including women and children.
In Mozambique, Bishop António Juliasse of Pemba reported that at least 300 Catholics had been killed in attacks specifically targeting Christians, while 118 churches and chapels had been destroyed during the Cabo Delgado insurgency. In April 2026, jihadist insurgents burned the church, offices, and missionary residence of St Louis de Montfort parish in Meza.
How Leo can protect the sheepfold
Leo’s response has been inadequate. Following the Komanda massacre, he condemned the killings, prayed for persecuted Christians, and urged international action. In November 2025, he acknowledged the danger facing Christians in Nigeria, but quickly added that Muslims also suffer from terrorism and communal violence. These are hardly the reactions one would expect from a shepherd whose flock is in mortal danger.
Instead of paying lip service to individual incidents by “condemning” them, Leo should be directing the energy he so publicly squanders on woke liberal causes like blessing icebergs towards making the persecution of African Christians an international priority.
There should be a sustained papal initiative specifically dedicated to the persecution of African Christians with a Vatican-led campaign demanding protection for Catholic villages, schools and parishes. The Holy See possesses diplomatic influence, international visibility and an extraordinary capacity to mobilize Catholic institutions.
Sadly, Rome is saying and doing so little that this is a pipe dream. It might just as well have remained silent.
The unavoidable conclusion is that the Synodal Pope does not care about this enormous suffering, and that his energy, concern and charity are reserved exclusively for those fashionable social causes that will bolster his popularity with the globalist liberal establishment. Not only can this failure be measured in more bloodshed, but it also acts as more damning evidence against the legitimacy of the Synodal Church and its leaders.
