ICC Note: the Hungarian government has set up a new department and initiated a 3 million euro budget meant to help persecuted Christians in the Middle East. The Hungarian leaders believe that the best way to help Christians stay in the Middle East is to aid them at home. They have already built a school in Erbil and plan to do many more projects in attempt to aid the suffering community. The Hungarian Prime Minister said he hopes his nation might be an example for the rest of Europe.

09/09/2016 Hungary (Christian Times): The government of Hungary has set up a new department and prepared an initial budget of three million euros to help persecuted Christians in the Middle East. It will be working under the Hungarian Ministry for Human Capacities, which deals with matters regarding education and the Church.

Tamás Török, former deputy ambassador to Italy, will be serving as head of the department. The purpose of the department is to gather information and analyze situations that involve Christian persecution. The government already released an initial one million euros as part of its budget, a portion of which will be used to send official delegates to areas identified as trouble spots.

Eduard von Habsburg, the ambassador to the Holy See, stated that Hungary has been covertly helping Christians in the Middle East for years. The new department is the result of those operations. Habsburg revealed that the government aided Christians and other persecuted minorities in obtaining visas.

He also mentioned that the government helped build a Christian school in Erbil, Iraq. He added that this “follows the philosophy that the best way [for the government] to give them a chance is to help them to stay at home, in their countries and to find help there… to help them have the chance of receiving help on the spot.”

Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán recently met with Pope Francis and Christian patriarchs from the Middle East. Orbán decided to set up the new department after the meeting with the pope.

Habsburg said that the creation of the new program was publicized to set an example to other nations in Europe.

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