Cardinal Donald Wuerl made those comments on Thursday while delivering the keynote address during the one-day symposium at the National Press Club focused on Christian prosecution.
The event featured the release of a report by the University of Notre Dame’s Under Caesar’s Sword project titled, “In Response to Persecution.”
Christian persecution is a worldwide phenomenon, noted the Washington archbishop.
“Reports suggest that about 200 million Christians around the world are at risk of physical violence, arrest, torture, even death simply because they live and practice a faith that is not acceptable to the rulers in that part of the world,” he pointed out.
“The journalist John Allen recently estimated that, this is a quote, the number of Christians killed for religious reasons is ‘roughly one every hour, 365 days a year,’” added the cardinal.
That amounts to about 9,000 Christians killed per year, which is consistent with a study by the Turin-based Center for Studies on New Religions (CESNUR).
According to the study, about 9,000 Christians were killed worldwide for practicing their faith last year.
The estimate marks a nearly 20-percent increase from the 7,100 Christians whom Open Doors USA said lost their lives for religious reasons in 2015. READ MORE
