Patriarchs, cardinals, politicians, and Christians from across the globe at the International Conference on Christian Persecution Credit: Alexey Gotovsky/EWTN
ishtartv.com - catholicnewsagency.com
By Courtney
Mares
Budapest, Hungary, Nov 26, 2019 -
Patriarchs, cardinals, politicians, and Christians from across the globe are in
Budapest this week for the International Conference on Christian
Persecution.
“We have 245 million reasons to
be here. This is how many people are persecuted daily because of their
Christian belief,” Hungarian State Secretary for the Aid of Persecuted
Christians Tristan Azbej said Nov. 26 as he opened the conference.
Azbej has been a driving force
behind Hungary Helps, a government initiative to provide international aid specifically
to persecuted Christian communities in the Middle East -- distinguishing
Hungary from most European governments.
Archbishop Bashar Warda of Erbil,
Iraq, told CNA that he hopes to see more European leaders acknowledge and
respond to the fact that Christians are being persecuted in the Middle East.
“I would ask the European leaders
to realize the fact that Christians are being persecuted because until now this
voice is still weak,” Warda said. “Hungary and Poland have done the right thing
to say clearly and loudly: Christians are being persecuted."
Since the Hungarian government
convened the first International Conference on Christian Persecution in 2017,
the event has doubled in size to 650 participants from over 40 countries.
"What brings us together is
the cause of persecuted Christians in the Middle East, and our search for the
elements that bring about these dire situations for the most ancient Christian
communities of the East,” Gewargis III, Patriarch of the Assyrian Church of the
East, said at the conference.
The conference, meeting Nov.
26-28, has drawn many Syrian, Iraqi, and Lebanese Christian leaders, including
Patriarch of the Syriac Orthodox Church of Antioch Ignatius Aphrem II, Chaldean
Catholic Archbishop of Mosul Najeeb Michaeel, and Rev. Joseph Kassab, head of
the Evangelical Community of Syria and Lebanon.
Off-the-record conversations were
held on “day zero” of the conference Nov. 25 on the Islamic landscape in “a
post-ISIS world,” and the role of NGOs in aiding persecuted communities.
Bishop and Primate of the
Armenian Orthodox Diocese of Damascus Armash Nalbandian highlighted in his
address that the targeted persecution of Christians is still a very current
threat in Syria.
“Not even one month ago, a gunman
shot dead Fr. Hovsep Bedoyan the head of the Armenian Catholic community in
Syria, Qamishli, near the border of Turkey and his father, Abraham Bedoyan ...
The attack was claimed by the Islamic State group,” Nalbandian said.
“The local media reported three
bombings in Qamishli, which occurred the same day of the assassination, and
were also claimed by ISIS, showed concern that militants were also coordinated
attacks against Christians in the city,” he added.
Catholic speakers at the
conference include Cardinal Peter Erdő, Primate of Hungary and Archbishop of
Budapest; Cardinal Gerhard Ludwig Mueller, former prefect of the Congregation
of the Doctrine of Faith, Archbishop Antoine Camilleri, apostolic nuncio to
Ethiopia, Bishop Oliver Dashe Doeme of Maiduguri, Nigeria, Bishop Matthew
Hassan Kukah of Sokoto, Nigeria, and Archbishop Ephram Yousif Mansoor of
Baghdad, who represented Syriac Catholic Patriarch of Antioch Ignatius Joseph
III Younan at the conference.
Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor
Orban gave the plenary address to the conference. U.S. President Donald Trump
also wrote a letter to the conference participants, which was read aloud by his
assistant Joe Grogan.
The Hungarian and the U.S.
governments agreed in November to jointly fund rebuilding projects in Qaraqosh,
the largest city in Iraq with a Christian majority.
“Hungarians believe Christian
values lead to peace and happiness and this is why our Constitution states that
protection of Christianity is an obligation for the Hungarian state, it
obligates us to protect Christian communities throughout the world suffering
persecution,” Orban said.
“The Hungarians amount to 0.12%
of the population of the world. Is there any point for a country of such a size
to stand up for the protection of Christians? Our answer is yes,” the prime
minister said.
Billy Graham Evangelistic
Association Vice President Viktor Hamm reminded the conference that the
Hungarian people themselves suffered Christian persecution in the not too
distant past under Soviet occupation.
Hamm himself was born in a Soviet
labor camp in what is now northwest Russia. “My grandfather was executed by the
Soviet regime. My father spent years in the gulags,” he said.
Evangelical Pastor Andrew Brunson
was also present at the conference at a Thanksgiving Gala Dinner. Brunson was
released in Oct. 2018 after being imprisoned for two years in Turkey.
"The cross that carried the
body of the savior of the world, and that inspired the lives of saints and
pastors in the Church for 2 millennia continues today to be the guiding light
... that prompts today disciples of the Lord to partake in his cross,” Cardinal
Mueller said at the conference.
“Be promoters of peace, and
continue the silent witness of the Lord’s presence in the world,” he said.
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