The French press is currently giving a lot of attention to the plight of oppressed Christians in the world following the appearance of the Open Doors’ World Watch List 2019 that shows where people are most persecuted because of their religious beliefs

Open Doors published the world watch list of persecuted Christians of 2019, ranking the 50 countries where Christians are most persecuted. The publication caused a media stir in France with many of the leading newspapers writing about the situation of persecuted Christians worldwide but particularly in the Middle-East.

The Catholic newspaper “La Vie” started its article about Christian persecution quoting Michel Varton, the director of the French Open Door organisation who declared: “If persecution were a lake, this year it would be deeper, and larger than ever, and the water would burst its banks.” Statistics seem to give credence to his analogy.

A journalist of La Croix focuses attention on the persecution of Christians in Africa with this article: «L’ONG Portes Ouvertes s’inquiète des violences contre les chrétiens en Afrique.»

The reports of these two newspapers are not surprising as they both have a Christian leaning. Other less conservative newspapers however, such as  Le Monde, Tv5Monde  the HuffingtonPost and the extremely left-oriented Belgian publication, La Libre Belgique, all acknowledged that religious persecution is a serious problem in our society.

These articles not only highlight the problems facing persecuted Christians, they also act as a vivid reminder that the people who suffer and die for their faith, are people like us. Their tragic circumstances are not the problem of a few; we are all genuinely compelled to support them.

Source: PortesOuvertes