Cardinal Erdő: Solidarity with persecuted Christians calls for unity among denominations

Budapest, January 15 (MTI) – Solidarity shown towards the world’s persecuted and oppressed Christians calls for unity among denominations, and sympathy for them must be transformed into action, Cardinal Péter Erdő, Archbishop of Esztergom-Budapest, said on Sunday.

Around one hundred thousand Christians get killed each year just for their faith and oftentimes it is not even clear what denomination they belong to, Erdő said in a Budapest church, marking the beginning of an ecumenical week of prayer.

“This is a kind of ecumenical martyrdom,” the cardinal said. He added that although the ongoing persecution of Christians was not the first in history, its scope exceeded that of all the previous ones.

Péter Gáncs, the presiding bishop of the Lutheran Church in Hungary, said people have been raising walls against each other for centuries. These walls, built out of hate, the absence of love, impatience, religious wars and discrimination, can be torn down by prayer, he said.

Photo: MTI

Source: MTI