(LifeSiteNews) — Catholic clergy in the Holy Land are beginning to feel the secularization of the region amid a war-torn climate, Benedictine Abbot Nikodemus Schnabel emphasized in an interview with Catholic charity Aid to the Church in Need (ACN).

“My fear is that the Holy Land could become a kind of ‘Christian Disneyland,’” the abbot said, where there are more tourists and visitors than inhabitants. “The holy places will remain, with monks and priests. But there might be no Christian families, no young Christians, no ordinary Christian life.”

“If you think of the most secularized regions in Europe – like the Czech Republic or the former East Germany – even there Christians are much more numerous than here,” the abbot continued.

Christians currently account for less than 2 percent of the population in the Holy Land.

The Benedictine abbot attributed this abandonment of native Christians to ongoing military conflicts and the harsh treatment inflicted by local extremist Jewish groups. The abbot said these groups have been accused of “spitting in the streets, vandalism, arson attacks, desecration and hate graffiti” targeting Christian communities.

Schnabel also said that the Israeli government has “legitimized or enabled such attitudes,” leading to the displacement of Christians.

Christians in the Holy Land have faced constant turmoil in recent years from the scourges of war or persecution. Abbott Schnabel experienced this persecution firsthand in 2024 when video footage caught the priest being spit on by two Israeli settlers as he walked through West Jerusalem.

Addressing the video in a post to X, he noted how persecution is the reality for many Christians in the Holy Land.

“The videos from today that are circulating about me are authentic,” the abbot wrote. “They show a part of the reality of my life that’s rarely filmed.”

Abbot Schnabel made it clear that this sentiment is not a general attitude held by Israeli Jews. Many Jewish groups who have denounced these abuses, but he noted that these phenomena “can no longer be considered marginal.”

“The paradox is clear,” he added. “The place where the most important events of our faith occurred risks losing its indigenous Christians.”