Aid to the Church in Need, a Catholic Charity agency working to support the needs of persecuted Christians in the Middle East, held a press conference at the offices of the Catholic Weekly on Tuesday.
Neville Kyrke-Smith, UK National Director of the organisation, spoke of the dwindling numbers and systematic victimisation of Lebanese, Iraqi and Syrian Christians.
“Religious freedoms are a litmus test” Kyrke said, also speaking of widespread “curtailment of freedoms” in the societies of the region.
Smith spoke of other minorities too, explaining that the West needed to bolster its support of Iraq’s Peshmerga in their fight against the Islamic State, and that Yazidis, another religious minority on the outskirts of Iraq, were merely “tiny voices speaking out.”
“This is our homeland” Smith said of the Christian heritage in the region, speaking of the need for solidarity with Arab Christians. “They are being tested in faith, and we in love” he said.
Aid to the Church in Need support seminarians, build churches, distribute bibles and Christmas gifts to thousands of children. They have recently pledged 2.8 million dollars in emergency aid to help Christians in Syria.
Weeks after the Islamic State’s execution of 21 young Copts in Libya, the organisation also helped fund the construction of the first Coptic Catholic Church in the Sinai.
Find out more about their work at the Aid to the Church in Need Australia website.
