Currently Christianity is the most persecuted religion in the world, says Hungarian minister
Data from human rights organisations show that 360 million Christians live in parts of the world where they are subjected to threats, discrimination or persecution, as against 245 million five years ago, Foreign Minister Péter Szijjártó said on Tuesday.
He told a ministerial conference on the freedom of religion or belief in London that the Hungarian government considered support for Christian communities an important task which contributed to the freedom of religion, the ministry said.
He cited the Hungary Helps programme which had helped around half a million people return to or stay in their homelands and provided over 100 million dollars for building, revamping and operating schools, hospitals and churches.
He said in his address that Christianity was currently facing two main challenges: aggressive secularisation and massive persecution. “Unfortunately, currently Christianity is the most persecuted religion in the world,” he added.
He said that Hungary had a thousand-year Christian heritage, which helped the country survive “the storms of history, occupation and all forms of dictatorship”. The fact that Hungary has been able to maintain its statehood has been due to a dedication to its Christian roots and heritage, he added.
Over the past ten years, some three thousand churches have been built in central European areas with ethnic Hungarian residents, the number of church-run schools has doubled in Hungary and the share of students attending such schools has grown from 10 percent to 20 percent, he said.
3 Comments
With so much persecution of Christians (as per FM “Péáter” (sic) Szijjarto’s quoted figures), isn’t it time the FM and PM considered allowing Christian “migrants” (REFUGEES) from Syria in at Hungary’s borders?
Among the highly persecuted Christian minorities in Syria many of those are actually Roman Catholics.
To me, a refugee is a refugee, whether they are Christians from neighbouring Ukraine, or are Christians from Syria. For that matter ALL refugees are REFUGEES (and are equal under ALL Gods), no matter what religion they embrace.
… And another reason why all shops should be closed on Sunday. So we can all go to Church! Unions would love this, too. Win Win!
If people WANT to go to their place of worship, whether it be a church, synagogue, mosque or a temple, on a Sunday, they will go whether shops/shopping plazas are open or not. I doubt there would be too many people giving their Sunday Mass a miss just because they would rather to go to a shopping plaza. For working women, working moms, Sunday shopping is very convenient.
At any rate, 7-day shopping is economically better for any country than a 5-day shopping week.
Governments can legislate against Sunday shopping, but they can’t force people to go to places of worship.
* Addendum, I am a fervent advocate of penalty rates for all those who are employed in the retail sector (and anyone else who has to work on a Saturday, Sunday, or a public holiday).