France’s churches are under attack, yet the media and political establishment are pretending not to notice. Last year, we saw blazes at historic churches in Rouen, Saint-Omer and Poitiers – each one another grim statistic in an escalating crisis. For years, we’ve seen Christian places of worship targeted in acts of arson and vandalism. Yet, until now, official confirmation of the scale of the problem has been curiously absent. That has changed. The French territorial intelligence service has reported a 30 per cent increase in criminal church fires in 2024. That’s not a handful of isolated incidents – it’s a surge. And a deeply troubling one at that.
In 2023, there were 38 recorded cases of criminal arson against churches in France. In 2024, that number jumped to nearly 50. The most affected regions are Nouvelle-Aquitaine, Île-de-France, and the Grand-Est. These are not accidental blazes sparked by faulty wiring or an unwatched candle left flickering. These are deliberate acts. Yet there has been no outcry in response to this surge, no demand for action from the mainstream French press, just an unsettling silence.
We are often told that all religions must be respected. We see swift condemnations of attacks on synagogues or mosques, and rightly so. But when it comes to churches, a strange silence descends. The French media, usually keen to dissect social trends, has been conspicuously quiet. Europe 1 and the Journal du Dimanche, both right leaning, gave the report a passing mention, noting the increase in church fires, the rise in thefts from places of worship (up 7 per cent to 288 recorded incidents), and even an attempted Islamist attack on a church foiled by security services in March. Beyond that, nothing. No front-page headlines. No national debate. Just quiet indifference.
Christianity in France is under attack – not just in the metaphorical sense of dwindling church attendance and the creeping secularisation of society, but in a very real, physical way. Arson, desecration, theft. This is not happening in some distant land, it’s happening in France, a country that still pretends to be rooted in its Christian heritage.
The statistics may be new, but the trend is not. Attacks on churches have been mounting for years, with reports surfacing of smashed altars, defaced statues, and stolen tabernacles. Yet each incident is treated as an unfortunate one-off rather than a worrying pattern.
One of the most shocking attacks in recent years was the brutal murder of Father Jacques Hamel in 2016, who was taken hostage by two Islamist terrorists while celebrating Mass in Saint-Étienne-du-Rouvray. They forced him to kneel at the altar before slitting his throat, all while filming their barbaric act. His death should have been a turning point against the escalating violence against Christian places of worship. Instead, the pattern of attacks has only grown.
Politicians, eager to avoid uncomfortable conversations, wave it away as petty vandalism rather than something more sinister. The fact that a government report now acknowledges the scale of the crisis should be a wake-up call. Not only are the attacks increasing, but official reports confirm a rising number of deliberate arson cases, thefts, and disruptions of religious services, highlighting an escalating hostility toward Christian places of worship.
Acknowledging anti-Christian attacks would mean confronting a few inconvenient truths. It would mean admitting that France is failing to protect its own heritage. It would mean addressing the uncomfortable question of who is responsible. And it would mean breaking the fashionable narrative that portrays Christianity as outdated, oppressive, or even deserving of scorn.
This cannot continue. France’s churches are not just places of worship; they are living links to the nation’s past, cultural treasures that belong to everyone, believers and non-believers alike. Their destruction is an attack on both the country’s heritage and its people. The French government has finally confirmed what many of us already knew. The attacks are getting worse. The question now is whether the French government will be doing anything about it. Unfortunately, I think we already know the answer.
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