In an interview granted to Il Giornale, Cardinal Angelo Bagnasco has issued a warning that directly challenges Western democracies: the persecution of Christians is overshadowed by a deliberate silence motivated by political interests. An omission that, far from being neutral, reveals to what extent faith continues to be uncomfortable in societies that proclaim themselves tolerant and open.
The Italian cardinal warns that the silence surrounding the persecutions is not the result of ignorance or lack of information, but of concrete political interests. Openly defending persecuted Christians—he points out—does not generate consensus, is not profitable, and can harm political careers or economic balances. Hence, it is often chosen to look the other way.
Bagnasco also emphasizes that this phenomenon does not only affect distant countries or regimes openly hostile to Christianity. In Europe and the West as well, persecution takes on more subtle forms, but no less effective. Instead of physically eliminating the believer, faith is emptied of content, reduced to folkloric tradition or private sentiment, and considered problematic when it seeks to have even a minimal public presence.
This new form of hostility often presents itself under the language of neutrality and tolerance. However, as the cardinal warns, it is a selective tolerance: faith is accepted as long as it does not question the dominant narrative or remind us that human beings are not self-sufficient and cannot be built apart from any transcendent reference.
In this context, Christian signs like the nativity scene become objects of controversy. Not because they impose a worldview, but precisely because they remind us of roots that many would prefer to erase from the common memory. The request, Bagnasco emphasizes, is not to impose them, but simply not to be expelled from public space or shared history.
The analysis also points to a broader cultural dynamic: while public space is filled with noise—media, political, and social—on essential issues, a heavy silence is imposed. A silence made of omissions, calculated prudences, and moral renunciations. Between both extremes, a faith remains that does not claim privileges, but neither accepts becoming invisible.
Bagnasco’s reflection thus links to a growing concern in the Church: the temptation to reduce peace, coexistence, and religious freedom to mere social balances, without addressing the root of the problem. When faith is systematically relegated to the private sphere, coexistence is not protected, but public space is impoverished and real freedom is weakened.