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The national mission to support Christians and Christian sites in the Holy Land has accompanied the millennial history of the Hungarian statehood, the Secretary of State of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade, responsible for programs to help persecuted Christians, told M1 news channel on Tuesday.
Tristan Azbej said this in connection with the Hungary Helps Program, which, with the support of the Hungarian government, has built the first Roman Catholic church and shrine on the banks of the Jordan River, on the Jordanian side, on the site of the baptism of Jesus Christ, and inaugurated the community hall of the monastery in the Old City of Jerusalem.
The Secretary of State recalled that last week he held bilateral talks on the situation in the Middle East with Cardinal Pietro Parolin, Secretary of State of the Holy See, and Cardinal Pierbattista Pizzaballa, Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem. It was discussed that
due to the conflicts in the Middle East, Christians in the Holy Land are losing their only source of income, pilgrimage tourism, which is causing a continuing exodus of Christians.
The discussions also touched on the changes in Syria and their impact on Christians in Syria.
According to Azbej, Cardinal Pietro Parolin praised Hungary’s efforts to help Christians persecuted in the Middle East and around the world, and encouraged Hungary to continue its missionary work.
The Secretary of State also mentioned the opening of the second regional branch of the Hungary Helps Agency abroad in the capital of Jordan. The agency is responsible for programs in the Middle East, with a special focus on church sites, and also supports and supervises humanitarian programs, he highlighted.
Speaking on Kossuth Radio’s Good Morning, Hungary! program, Azbej called it a great tragedy that
Western countries with Christian cultures have forgotten about Christians in the Middle East and the Holy Land.”
Hungary was the only country to provide financial aid for the two biblical sites, he reminded.
In the cradle of Christianity, in the places where Jesus Christ lived, the number of Christians is dramatically decreasing, unable to build their future, and the more prosperous countries with Christian roots show complete neutrality and indifference towards them, the Secretary of State said. According to Azbej, it is an obvious fact that the disappearance of Christians from the cradle of Christianity could mean the end of Christian civilization. He added that it was also in Europe’s vital interest that people in the Middle East should remain in their homeland and that there should be no mass migration to Europe.
Via MTI, Featured photo via Pixabay