Anti-Christian feeling is spreading in Muslim countries and other parts of the world because the war on terrorism is seen as linked to Western political strategy, says the Vatican's foreign minister.
Archbishop Giovanni Lajolo, in a speech to a U.S.-organised conference on religious freedom on Friday, was the latest Vatican official to decry what the Church fears will be a difficult future in regions where Christians are in the minority.
"It should be recognised that the war against terrorism, even though necessary, had as one of its side-effects the spread of 'Christianophobia' in vast areas of the globe," he told the conference.
Lajolo, the Vatican's second-ranking diplomat, said anti-Christian feeling existed where political strategies of Western countries were believed to be driven by Christianity.
He said this was why the Vatican had insisted that "Christianophobia be condemned together with Islamophobia and anti-Semitism" in recent U.N. human rights documents.
While he did not specifically mention Iraq, his comments appeared to be a reference to it and other Islamic nations where minority Christians have come under attack.
A spate of bombs have hit churches and hospitals in the past few months, leaving numerous dead and injured.
Iraq's 650,000 Christians, mostly Chaldeans, Assyrians and Catholics, comprise about 3 percent of the population. Many have left Iraq and the Vatican fears more will go if attacks go on.
Washington justified invading Iraq by saying Saddam Hussein had developed weapons of mass destruction and claiming there were links between Baghdad and al Qaeda. No such weapons have been found nor hard evidence of pre-war al Qaeda links.
The Vatican strongly opposed the invasion.
Lajolo later told reporters the perceived dislike of Christians was taking place because "their institutions and their activities are seen as attempts to win converts or interfere in local cultures".
John V. Hanford III, U.S. ambassador at large for international religious freedom, said Washington was concerned about any Christian exodus from Iraq but that the U.S.-led intervention could not be blamed for the religious strife.
Participants at the conference also said they feared for the fate of Christians in other countries including Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, India, Vietnam and China.
"There are well over half a million Catholics, mostly guest workers from the Philippines and other countries, but there is not a single church building in all Saudi Arabia," Hanford said.
He said Saudi Arabia, home to Islam's holiest sites, had made some "good first steps" such as revising their textbooks to remove inflammatory statements against minority religions and trying to rein in the "sometimes overzealous religious police".