Cardinal Mario Zenari, Apostolic Nuncio to Syria thanked the Hungarian Catholic Bishops’ Conference and the members of the Church for their generous donation supporting the Syrian Open Hospital humanitarian initiative of the AVSI Foundation and the work of Caritas Syria.
“The bloody conflict, the 9-year-long destruction, the death and the endless rows of refugee camps are not over yet. Just think about the bombing and the daily attacks in the North-West and the situation which remains uncertain in the North-Eastern part of the country,” says the Cardinal in his letter.
UN reports state that 83% of the Syrian population live in extreme poverty. Cardinal Zenari finds it comforting that brave people of good will follow the example of Veronica, Simon of Cyrene and the Good Samaritan and help the persecuted get to safety.
The Cardinal highlights that based on the statistics of the World Health Organization 54% of Syrian hospitals completely closed down or only partly operate. This fact underlines the importance of “Open Hospitals” which welcome everyone irrespective of their religious affiliation or ethnicity. These institutions provided care for over 30,000 patients in the last two years, a figure expected to reach 50,000 by the end of the third year. The initiative also facilitates a peaceful coexistence of different religious and ethnic groups, especially Christians and Muslims.
The Hungarian Catholic Bishops’ Conference announced a donation campaign in September 2018 to help our persecuted Christian brothers and sisters. Thanks to the donations of the members of the Church, we were able to support our Middle Eastern brothers and sisters with more than EUR 200 thousand.
Budapest, 13 January 2020
General Secretariat of the HCBC