Priest stabbed in the face during Mass as religion-based hate crime is on the rise worldwide

Attacks against priests appear to be on the rise around the globe following the latest assault in which a priest in Singapore was stabbed in the face during a Mass on Saturday Nov. 9., marking at least the third attack of its kind this month.

Father Christopher Lee – parish priest of St. Joseph church in the west-central Singapore region of Bukit Timah – was attacked by Basnayake Keith Spencer with a knife while he was distributing Holy Communion, reported Catholic media outlet OSV News on Friday.

Spencer has reportedly been charged with the "offense of voluntarily causing grievous hurt by a dangerous weapon" and remanded by a court in Singapore for three weeks.

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Lee was reported to have sustained a "laceration on his tongue," along with a cut on his upper lip and on the corner of his mouth. He is said to be recovering from his injuries. 

The Father in Singapore was not the only priest to have been assaulted last Saturday, as a monastery in Spain’s Valencia region was also attacked by a middle-aged man who yelled out "I am Jesus Christ" during his ambush before he was subdued.

Three friars at the Monastery of Santo Espíritu del Monte in Gilet, Spain were injured in the attack after the unidentified man "wielding a blunt object, burst into the premises with a violent and provocative attitude," according to a statement by the Immaculate Conception of the Franciscan Order, the community to which the monastery belongs, reported multiple reports.

Father Juan Antonio Llorente, 76 – one of three friars attacked in the incident – died two days later in a hospital after succumbing to his injuries on Monday. 

Nov. 9 was marred by one other attack on a priest in Poland, where Father Lech Lachowicz, 72, died due to extensive brain damage following an attack one-week prior.

An axe-wielding 27-year-old – whose identity remains unclear – attacked Lachowicz on Nov. 3 in his rectory during an alleged robbery attempt in a Szczytno parish in northeastern Poland.

The assailant has been taken into custody.

The series of attacks across the globe came roughly one month after a priest was brutally attacked inside his Philadelphia home located across the street from St. Maron's Maronite Catholic Church, though he is reported to be recovering. 

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Hate crimes against not only Catholics, but Jews, Muslims and others, are growing across the globe, particularly in Europe and the U.S.

A report released Friday by the Organization for Security and Co-operation (OSCE) in Europe found that across 48 nations in Europe, there were over 4,480 incidents of hate crimes committed against Jews, more than 580 incidents targeting Christians and nearly 240 reported incidents against Muslims.

While anti-Christian and anti-Muslim incidents dropped from 2022 OSCE records, crimes against Jews grew by more than 20% from the previous year.

In the U.S., 2023 attacks against Catholics came in fourth behind targeted attacks against Sikhs, Muslims and Jews respectively – an increasing trend in recent years, though the assaults have skyrocketed following the Oct. 7, 2023 Hamas attack on Israel and the subsequent war that has ensued in the Gaza Strip, which has since extended into Lebanon, and increasingly, Syria, Iraq and Iran. 

The FBI reported in September that there was a 3% decrease in overall hate crimes committed in the U.S. between 2023 and 2022, but according to its figures, there was also a 20% increase in the number of religiously motivated hate crimes committed over the last year.

More than 2,500 incidents of religion-based hate crimes were reported in the U.S. in 2023, a jump from the nearly 2,050 incidents reported the year prior. 

While more than half of the religion-based hate crimes in 2022 were driven by anti-Jewish bias, that percentage jumped in 2023 to account for some 67% of all religious hate crimes in the U.S.

Anti-Muslim hate crimes came in second with 236 attacks last year, which accounted for less than nine percent of all religion-based hate crimes that year, according to the FBI. 

Attacks against Sikhs accounted for 5%, and attacks against Catholics accounted for nearly 3%. 

All attacks against Christians, as defined by Catholic, Protestant and "other Christians," made up over 6% of religious hate crimes, accounting for 176 incidents reported in 2023.

The BBC in October reported a similar trend in Britain and Wales where there was a 5% decrease in overall hate crimes but a 25% increase in religion-based hate crimes.

Crimes against Jews more than doubled in 2023 where more than 3,280 incidents were reported, up from just over 1,540 incidents in 2022. Attacks against Muslims also grew by 13% in Britain and Wales.