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 Budapest, Hungary, Dec.20 (DP.net).- Patriarchs, cardinals, politicians, and Christians from across the globe convened in Budapest on the week of Nov. 26-28 for the second International Conference on Christian Persecution.

“We have 245 million reasons to be here. This is how many people are persecuted daily because of their Christian belief,” Hungarian State Secretary for the Aid of Persecuted Christians Tristan Azbej said Nov. 26 as he opened the conference. Azbej has been a driving force behind Hungary Helps, a government initiative to provide international aid specifically to persecuted Christian communities in the Middle East -- distinguishing Hungary from most European governments.

Archbishop Bashar Warda of Erbil, Iraq, declared that he hopes to see more European leaders acknowledge and respond to the fact that Christians are being persecuted in the Middle East. “I would ask the European leaders to realize the fact that Christians are being persecuted because until now this voice is still weak,” Warda said. “Hungary and Poland have done the right thing to say clearly and loudly: Christians are being persecuted."

This conference draw together many Syrian, Iraqi, and Lebanese Christian leaders, including Patriarch of the Syriac Orthodox Church of Antioch Ignatius Aphrem II, Chaldean Catholic Archbishop of Mosul Najeeb Michaeel, and Rev. Joseph Kassab, head of the Evangelical Community of Syria and Lebanon.

Bishop and Primate of the Armenian Orthodox Diocese of Damascus Armash Nalbandian highlighted in his address that the targeted persecution of Christians is still a very current threat in Syria. “Not even one month ago, a gunman shot dead Fr. Hovsep Bedoyan the head of the Armenian Catholic community in Syria, Qamishli, near the border of Turkey and his father, Abraham Bedoyan ... The attack was claimed by the Islamic State group,” he said. “The local media reported three bombings in Qamishli, which occurred the same day of the assassination, and were also claimed by ISIS, showed concern that militants were also coordinated attacks against Christians in the city,” he added. 

Hungarian Foreign Minister Péter Szijjártó recalled that in the past year 2,625 Christians were arrested without any legal grounds in different parts of the world. Attacks on Christian churches numbered more than 1,200. From Szijjártó’s speech it became clear that the Orbán regime defines “Christian phobia” and “hatred of Christians” in the broadest possible sense. Hungarian politicians consider intolerance of the Christian set of religious beliefs to be “persecution.”

In 2017 Hungarian aid to persecuted Christians in the Middle East exceeded 7 million euros. The program to aid persecuted Christians has been pursued with full force. In April of this year, “The Hungary Helps Agency” was established. Its task is to coordinate programs to help persecuted Christians. From a modest 10-member team in 2017, a large agency emerged, which moved with the prime minister to his new quarters in the Castle District of Buda. The agency signed an agreement with the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), but, according to a government document, finding European partners, other than Poland, for the projects was quite difficult.

The Orbán government not only spends money on projects that help Christian churches in the Middle East and Africa, but it is spearheading a campaign against the persecution and oppression of Christians all over the world.  

 Rome, Dec.19.– Police arrested more than 300 people on Thursday in the biggest operation against the Italian mafia since a crackdown on Sicily’s Cosa Nostra 30 years ago.

Night-time raids were conducted by 2,500 paramilitary police officers, some of them equipped with night-vision goggles, as well as soldiers from the army’s parachute regiment and elite helicopter-borne tactical units.

MEPs celebrated the reforms that enhanced democracy and expanded people’s rights in the EU with Presidents Sassoli, Michel and von der Leyen.  

Brussels, Dec.17.– At the beginning of the formal sitting, EP President David Sassoli highlighted the role that the Lisbon Treaty and the Charter of Fundamental Rights play in maintaining peace and prosperity in Europe. He added that the upcoming Conference on the Future of Europe presents an opportunity to address persisting and new challenges through a stronger Europe, based on solidarity and freedom.

During the round of interventions by political group speakers, MEPs representing a broad majority in parliament stressed that the EU needs to be reformed and strengthened in order to address citizens’ concerns, ranging from the environment and climate change to social issues, and from European defence, security and foreign policy, to the rule of law, democracy and citizens’ rights.

Rudolph Giuliani said in an interview that he briefed the president “a couple of times” about Marie Yovanovitch, the envoy to Ukraine, setting her recall in motion.

 Washington DC, Dec.17.– Rudolph W. Giuliani said on Monday that he provided President Trump with detailed information this year about how the United States ambassador to Ukraine was, in Mr. Giuliani’s view, impeding investigations that could benefit Mr. Trump, setting in motion the ambassador’s recall from her post.

In an interview, Mr. Giuliani, the president’s personal lawyer, described how he passed along to Mr. Trump “a couple of times” accounts about how the ambassador, Marie L. Yovanovitch, had frustrated efforts that could be politically helpful to Mr. Trump. They included investigations involving former Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. and Ukrainians who disseminated documents that damaged Mr. Trump’s 2016 campaign.