InterSociety stated that the Vatican’s recent position contradicts longstanding Church teachings on religious freedom, which date back to the Edict of Milan in 313 AD.
A report by the International Society for Civil Liberties and Rule of Law (Intersociety) has accused the Vatican, particularly its Secretary of State, Cardinal Pietro Parolin, of engaging in “doublespeak” on the alleged “Christian genocide” in Nigeria.
This was contained in the report on Monday to mark the Feast of Christ the King, and signed by Intersociety Board Chair, Emeka Umeagbalasi, and other officials.
Intersociety said it was “deeply worried and dismayed” by what it called the Holy See’s growing inconsistency on the crisis facing Nigeria’s Christian population, estimated at 113 million, including 60 million Catholics.
InterSociety stated that the Vatican’s recent position contradicts longstanding Church teachings on religious freedom, which date back to the Edict of Milan in 313 AD.
According to Intersociety, the Vatican’s ambiguous messaging began on October 21, 2025, and has since intensified, allegedly aligning with the Nigerian government’s narrative that denies any systematic persecution of Christians.
The group said attempts by the Vatican Secretariat of State to “deny Christian persecution and genocide in Nigeria” mirror efforts by Nigerian authorities to downplay attacks widely condemned by the international community.
Intersociety argued that the Holy See’s stance has raised doubts about its commitment to defending persecuted Christian communities.
“The most annoying, disappointing and shocking of it is that the Holy See under which the International Religious Freedom was proclaimed as ‘First Human Right’ in 313 AD through the Edith of Milan under Popes Constantine and Licinius; is today promoting the same narrative and script of the Government of Nigeria by way of: there is no Christian Genocide in Nigeria,” the report read.
The group said the height of the Vatican’s inconsistencies was observed during the launch of the 1,248-page 2025 Religious Freedom Report by Aid to the Church in Need (ACN) in Rome on October 21, 2025.
The report, according to Intersociety, had identified Nigeria as one of the world’s most dangerous places to be a Christian.
Intersociety alleged that Cardinal Parolin and Bishop Matthew Hassan Kukah of the Sokoto Diocese used the sidelines of the launch to “downplay Nigeria’s worst human rights record on religious freedom,” and to promote the government’s position that there is “no Christian genocide” in the country.
The report said their intervention effectively undermined the ACN report, whose preamble warned that religious freedom remains “one of the greatest human rights issues of our time,” quoting St. John Paul II.
It cited what it described as a pattern of conflicting statements from the Holy See.
The group noted that Pope Leo XIV had, on November 17, 2025, listed Nigeria among countries facing serious Christian persecution.
However, three days later, media reports quoted the Pope as saying “violence affects Christians, Muslims and other groups alike” in Nigeria, a position Intersociety viewed as contradicting earlier remarks.
The group also claimed that the Nigerian government’s narrative has been replicated by religious institutions, political allies, and civil society actors across more than 300 platforms since October 2025, including the Muslim Rights Concern (MURIC), the Sultanate of Sokoto, sections of the Catholic Bishops Conference of Nigeria (CBCN), and other groups.
Intersociety said the alleged inconsistencies have placed Nigerian Christians and the global Christian community “at high risk and endangerment.”
It therefore called for the immediate resignation of Cardinal Parolin as Vatican Secretary of State.
The group also announced that it would suspend the use of the Cardinal’s honorific title, His Eminence, in all its publications until further notice.
It asked Pope Leo XIV to remove or transfer Parolin if he failed to step down, noting that Catholicism is everybody’s property.
The report also claimed that between September and November 2025, 280 Christians were killed and 623 abducted by what it described as “political leadership-protected Fulani Jihadists.”
It said 388 of those abducted were seized within a five-day period from November 17 to 21, 2025, a figure it likened to an incident “worse than” the 2014 Chibok schoolgirls’ kidnapping.
Intersociety listed several incidents within the period, including the abduction of a Catholic priest and 10 others in Southern Kaduna on November 17; kidnapping of 25 schoolgirls in Wasagu/Danko, Kebbi State, on November 17, which it said at least 10 of them were Christians; abduction of 38 worshippers, including a pastor, from Christ Apostolic Church in Kwara State on November 18; and kidnapping of a Catholic Church leader in Southern Kaduna on November 19.
Other incidents include the seizure of 315 people, including 303 schoolchildren and 12 teachers, from a Catholic school in Agwara, Niger State, on November 21, and the abduction of 13 Christian women by Boko Haram in Askira-Uba, Southern Borno, on November 20.
