Hungary aims to become the leading country that provides refuge for persecuted Christians, Zoltán Balog, minister of Human Resources, said.
The minister addressed 72 Christian students from the Middle East who have received Hungarian state scholarships, during a Christian festival held at Budapest’s St. Stephen’s Basilica on Friday.
Minister Balog said the stipends were for those who had come from countries where Christians face suffering and danger on a daily basis.
“Today three out of four Christians in the world are persecuted, and the western world knows little about it,” he said.
Cardinal Péter Erdő, the head of the Hungarian Catholic Church, led the students in Latin Mass and highlighted how under many decades of Communism, Hungarian Catholics were isolated from the church and they need to form contacts with the Catholic faithful of other lands..
“It is important for the present generation to experience being part of a single Christian family while sharing our faith and our mission,” the cardinal said.