When Rome Speaks Softly and Christians Bleed Loudly

Cardinal Parolin on Nigeria — a critical reading

Cardinal Pietro Parolin, the Vatican’s Secretary of State, set off a fresh wave of debate when, at the launch of Aid to the Church in Need’s 2025 Religious Freedom report, he cautioned reporters against describing all recent attacks on Christians in Nigeria as intrinsically “religious” or sectarian. Parolin emphasised the complexity of the violence, pointing to agrarian and herder–farmer disputes and other social causes, and warned that “to speak of persecution is slightly problematic” in some cases.

That brief intervention, diplomatic in tone but explosive in effect for many Catholic commentators and Nigerian believers, raises an important question for anyone trying to understand what is happening on the ground: are the brutal attacks we keep hearing about best explained as social conflict that affects people of every faith, or are Christians in Nigeria being targeted for their religion? The short answer is: the evidence points in both directions, which is precisely why Parolin’s caution is analytically defensible, and politically fraught.