https://www.spectator.com.au/2025/05/the-popes-betrayal/
”The pope’s betrayal：
Francis stayed silent as jihadists wiped out African Christians”
By Dr. Ida Lichter
10 May 2025
Pope Francis embodied many virtues. He was humble, kind and amicable. A faithful Jesuit, guided by social justice and human rights, he defended migrants and refugees against modern society’s ‘indifference and marginalisation’. The homily during his Funeral Mass, extolled the pope’s activism on behalf of displaced persons and refugees.
It was entirely consistent that he found the ‘beating heart’ of his mission in Africa. As a shepherd of mercy and compassion, Africa drew his pastoral attention. He dreamed of a new future for its people, liberated, as he saw it, from the shackles of colonialism and the foreign exploitation of neo-colonialism. Francis toured the continent five times as pope, visited 10 countries, and reshaped Africa’s ties with the Vatican.
The Pope may have borne witness, but he did not use his voice to proclaim or ease the plight of millions of persecuted Catholics within Africa. In contrast, the NGO International Christian Concern called on the worldwide church to intercede in support of ‘Christians who face myriad forms of persecution – murder, imprisonment, torture, rape, attacks, discrimination, isolation, ostracisation and more… where extremist leaders and hateful groups actively target Christians and force the church underground.’
Christianity is the fastest-growing religion in Africa with over 600 million followers. The largest denomination is Catholicism, totalling more than 280 million and representing 20 per cent of Catholics globally. During the papacy of Francis, Africa has seen the world’s largest growth of baptised Catholics, particularly in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Nigeria and Uganda. Today, the DRC has the highest number with about 55 million, followed by 35 million in Nigeria.
Yet, large-scale massacres and displacement, both internal and external, threaten African Christians. In its 2025 Global Persecution Index, International Christian Concern documented the rise of Islamist extremism and Islamist terror groups, especially in Nigeria. Officially a secular state with a population roughly half-Christian in the south and half-Muslim in the north, Nigeria is the most dangerous country for Christians, their persecution compounded by sharia legislation in the 12 Muslim-majority northern states.
Local extremists and jihadi groups, particularly Boko Haram, Fulani Militants and Islamic State West Africa Province (ISWAP) are on a campaign of Islamisation, attempting to impose their interpretation of Islam, including blasphemy and anti-conversion laws. Boko Haram aims to implement sharia law throughout the whole of Nigeria, with a view to establishing a political-religious Islamic state.
In 2024, an estimated 18,900 deaths were linked to Islamist violence in Africa, the majority in Sahel countries Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger. The Catholic charity Aid to the Church in Need reported worsening persecution in Mali, where Christians were threatened with closure of churches unless they paid the jizya tax (a religious tax that was mandatory tribute for ‘protection’ borne by Christian and Jewish subjects in Muslim countries).
The Sahel is also impacted by Sudan’s devastating civil war between the rival Sudanese Armed Forces and paramilitary Rapid Support Forces, as well as a turf war between Boko Haram and ISWAP. Since the civil war started in April 2023, an estimated 150,000 people have been killed, and Sudan is facing the world’s worst famine in 40 years. More than 12 million people have been displaced within Sudan and across neighbouring countries.
Sudan’s civil war has triggered an increasing number of violent attacks against the minority Christian population, severely persecuted by Islamist governments for decades, and now caught in the war’s cross hairs. Christian communities and clergy have been massacred, with converts from Islam especially vulnerable. Many churches were forced to close, some repurposed as military bases after driving out or killing people hiding inside. Facing deadly violence, and deprived of access to food, water and medical aid, the outlook is dire for the Christian minority, and many feel abandoned by the international community, global church and aid organisations.
In the DRC, where almost 30 per cent of the people are practising Catholics, the Christian population is increasingly persecuted, often in coordinated attacks by the radical Islamic Allied Democratic Forces (ADF) and their Islamic State affiliates. Massacres and beheadings have been reported, and the situation has sparked fears that the ADF is attempting to obliterate Christianity in the region.
To compound problems in the DRC, M23 rebels led by ethnic Tutsis are causing chaos. According to the Christian watchdog Open Doors, the fray enables the ADF to ‘continue its campaign of terror with total impunity. Christians in the region have been abandoned. They are completely unprotected, and the world is not paying attention.’
Decades of conflict have claimed six million dead, displaced many more, and spawned about 100 different militias operating in the DRC.
Lack of protective laws have left Christian women and girls exposed to rape, abduction, forced marriage and sexual slavery, while men and boys are at risk of sexual violence and enforced recruitment into Islamist armed groups.
The regal funeral for Pope Francis obscured a darker side of his papacy. Having drawn Africa close to his heart and legacy, it was disappointing he chose to downplay the peril facing African Christians. He also chose to ignore the ideology and sponsors of jihadi violence. These failings advanced the persecution of Christians and destruction of their villages and churches with impunity. And though he sought compassion and welcome for refugees generally, he was reluctant to call out the Islamist violence that led to the displacement of persecuted African Christians and their wretched refugee status.
For a revered world leader and exemplar, who personified moral conscience, the pope’s silence might be seen as a moral failure and betrayal of African Christians.
The pontiff could not be expected to clear jihadi hotbeds in Africa. However he possessed a global megaphone to amplify his words, a clarion he had used effectively to highlight the duties of hospitality, compassion and support for refugees. A similar call to action could have mobilised Catholics, other Christians and secular humanitarians worldwide on behalf of persecuted African Christians.
Sadly, that omission gave licence and encouragement to the barbaric, marauding jihadi groups that terrorise Christians in Africa. It also left a serious blot on the moral credentials of the Catholic Church.
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