In various parts of the world, including the Middle East and China, it is well known that Christians are being abused and persecuted for their faith. The good news is that some countries are beginning to pay more attention to the plight of these persecuted Christians.
Hungary recently became the first country to take concrete steps to rescue and protect persecuted Christians around the world, with its government creating and funding a department for this particular purpose.
Eduard von Habsburg, the ambassador of Hungary to the Holy See, confirmed to the Crux news website that the European nation indeed created the agency with a budget of $3.35 million to assist persecuted Christians worldwide.
Habsburg said Hungary has long been assisting persecuted Christians in the Middle East. The Hungarian government will spend the coming weeks ironing out the exact duties of the new department for these victimised believers.
"Hungary has been silently working in the Middle East for years in the danger spots," the ambassador said. "This is the prolongation of a policy that's been in place for a long time."
He also shared that Hungary's Prime Minister, Viktor Orbán, and its Minister of Human Resources, Zoltán Balog, came to the decision to create and fund the department for persecuted Christians after meeting with Pope Francis last month.
"What's interesting is that these are both Calvinists," Habsburg said, "and both are people of faith."
He added that government officials' interactions with leading European churchmen, such as Cardinal Christoph Schönborn of Vienna, Austria, and with the patriarchs of the Middle East, also contributed to the decision to form the agency.
"Hungary considers itself Christian, and is interested in the situation of Christians all around the world," the ambassador said. "It wants to extend a helping hand."
Habsburg also expressed hopes that other European nations will follow Hungary's lead in caring for the hundreds of thousands of persecuted Christians around the world.
"Somehow the idea of defending Christians has acquired a bad taste in Europe, as if it means excluding other people," the ambassador lamented.
