FBI figures reveal anti-Catholic hate crimes in U.S.

On 5 August 2025, the Federal Bureau of Investigation published its Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) data for calendar year 2024.

According to the FBI’s Hate Crime in the United States Incident Analysis, law enforcement agencies across the United States reported 437 anti-Catholic hate-crime incidents over the past five years. The same analysis found 2,321 reported anti-Jewish hate crimes in 2024, as well as 287 anti-Islamic hate crimes. Overall, religious hate crime is growing at a rapid rate.

The FBI further reported that in 2024 there were 11,679 hate-crime incidents overall, involving 14,243 victims, as stated in the UCR data released on 5 August 2025.

While anti-Catholic incidents comprise a relatively small fraction of the total, they remain deeply disturbing. A 2025 report by the Family Research Council (FRC) documented 415 “hostile acts” against Christian churches, including Catholic ones. These acts included 284 instances of vandalism, 55 arson attempts, 28 gun-related incidents, 14 bomb threats, and 47 other hostile acts.

In January 2024, police arrested 22-year-old Debari Charvel Augustine of San Francisco for shooting towards St Augustine Catholic Church in South San Francisco. In Wichita, Kansas, on 15 March 2025, St Patrick Parish suffered extensive vandalism; statues, candles, and glass were damaged, hateful graffiti defaced the interior, and an American flag was burnt. Authorities responded swiftly; a 23-year-old suspect was arrested, and federal investigators from the ATF joined the inquiry.

Despite the violence against Catholic communities, a leaked 2023 report revealed that Catholic churchgoers in America were spied upon by undercover government agents.

At least one undercover operative of the FBI was commissioned to secretly gather evidence which might link Catholics to “the far-right nationalist movement”. The document further revealed that the FBI focused in particular on Catholics interested in the Traditional Latin Mass, alleging that this group within the Church was the most likely to be sympathetic to violent extremist activities.

Today, about 1 in 7 Christians globally face high levels of persecution, a figure which was around 1 in 8 in 2021, according to UK Parliament research. In 2024 alone, 4,476 Christians were killed for faith-related reasons, with 70% of these deaths occurring in Nigeria.