Human resources minister lauds work of office against persecution of Christians

The Hungarian government’s deputy state secretariat for aiding persecuted Christians has succeeded in drawing greater international attention to the issue of the persecution of Christians around the world, the human resources minister said in an interview to the Friday edition of the daily Magyar Idők. 

The office has been contacted by a number of persecuted churches, asking for help in keeping their age-old communities together, Zoltán Balog told the paper.

It was in response to these calls that the government decided to fund six months’ worth of medicine supplies to St. Joseph’s Hospital in Erbil, in northern Iraq, and selected a village that it will help rebuild in its entirety, the minister noted.

The government has also set up a state fund that will support the education of young Middle Easterners and Africans in Hungary, Balog said.

“Christianity is the most persecuted religion in the world. And in Europe, which to an extent is the birthplace of Christianity, it has been forced on the defensive,” the minister said. Christianity “is on the receiving end of increasingly fierce administrative and legal attacks by a growing number of people …” he added.

On another subject, the minister said the 16th annual Civic Picnic in Kötcse, in southwestern Hungary, which he will host over the weekend, will focus on family policy matters and the protection of Christian values.