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Tess Holgate, January 30th, 2017
The
Prince of Wales, heir to the British throne, has expressed concern that the
plight of Christians in the Middle East has been overshadowed by public
obsession over Brexit.
At a
reception at Lambeth Palace, the home of the Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin
Welby, Prince Charles reportedly said, “people are more interested and obsessed
with Brexit than persecuted Christians.”
According
to The Telegraph, the comments have not been denied by royal
aides.
The
Prince referred to the late-2016 report by Catholic charity Aid to the Church
in Need (ACN), which received little news coverage in the mainstream media.
“…it
seems to me vital that we pause for more than a moment to think about the
plight of Christians in the lands where the Word was actually ‘made flesh and
dwelt among us’.” – Prince Charles
The
Religious Freedom in the World 2016 report identified that between June 2014
and June 2016, “religious liberty has declined in 11 of the 23 worst-offending
countries. In seven other countries in this category, the problems were already
so bad they could scarcely get any worse.”
The
source at the Lambeth House event reportedly said, “Prince Charles complained that the Aid to
the Church in Need report had sunk without trace because people were so
obsessed with Brexit.”
It’s
not the first time the Prince has been outspoken on the suffering of Christians
in the region.
“…a
very real crisis which threatens the very existence of Christianity in the land
of its birth.” – Prince Charles
In
December 2015, he spoke powerfully of Christians he had met who had been
kidnapped, tortured and threatened with beheading, but had kept their faith.
“At
this traditional time of prayer and reflection on the mystery of the
Incarnation, it seems to me vital that we pause for more than a moment to think
about the plight of Christians in the lands where the Word was actually ‘made
flesh and dwelt among us’.
“Their
suffering is symptomatic of a very real crisis which threatens the very
existence of Christianity in the land of its birth.”
In
that speech, the Prince cited a report by ACN, which predicted that
Christianity was on course to disappear from Iraq within five years, unless
emergency help was provided on a greatly increased scale at an international
level.
There
are fewer than 250,000 Christians left in Iraq, following a sustained
campaign by Islamic State to rid the region of its Christians. Hundreds of
thousands of Iraqis have fled to neighbouring cities and countries, searching
for safety.
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