{"id":26273,"date":"2017-12-12T10:35:28","date_gmt":"2017-12-12T10:35:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.acnmalta.org\/?p=26273"},"modified":"2017-12-12T10:35:28","modified_gmt":"2017-12-12T10:35:28","slug":"european-parliament-holds-first-ever-public-hearing-persecuted-christians-marcela-szymanski-acn-international","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/acnmalta.org\/_oldsite\/2017\/12\/12\/european-parliament-holds-first-ever-public-hearing-persecuted-christians-marcela-szymanski-acn-international\/","title":{"rendered":"European Parliament holds the first ever Public Hearing on Persecuted Christians Marcela Szymanski &#8211; ACN\u00a0 International"},"content":{"rendered":"<style type=\"text\/css\"><\/style><h2><span style=\"color: #000000;\"><strong>European Parliament holds the first ever Public Hearing on Persecuted Christians\u00a0<\/strong><\/span><\/h2>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\"><em>Aid to the Church in Need invited to present its recently published report\u00a0&#8220;Persecuted and Forgotten?&#8221; and comment on possible solutions <\/em><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">As \u201cRed Wednesday\u201d was being observed in many countries around the world commemorating the sacrifice of the martyrs of their faith, the European Parliament held a Public Hearing in which for the first time\u00a0it specifically\u00a0sought to gather information about the global persecution of Christians. Aid to the Church in Need (ACN) was invited to provide factual background\u00a0information as contained in its recent 2015-2017 edition of \u201cPersecuted and Forgotten?\u201d, a biennial report on Christian persecution.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">Presenting after the UN Rapporteur and the EU Special Envoy for Freedom of Religion, Marcela Szymanski of the ACN EU Office provided a summary of the main findings, and a country-by-country review of case studies. The report elicited interest especially in those countries where the members of the European Parliament were not as aware that Christian persecution was so acute such as, for example, in India, China and Nigeria.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">As many of\u00a0the preceding speakers had already described a realistic, dark picture of the growing persecution of Christians, ACN also provided\u00a0some positive case studies, notably an update to the Nineveh Reconstruction Project\u00a0&#8211; an effort by the charity to rebuild Christian\u00a0homes, churches and religious institutions in Iraq following the devastation of ISIS. This last point received particular attention and unity of support by the parliamentarians as a concrete\u00a0and positive example for this troubled\u00a0region of how to help persecuted Christians return to their homes and in so doing help retain the plurality of Iraqi society.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">The UN Special Rapporteur for Freedom of Religion, Ahmed Shaded, indicated that in the coming months the UN will look especially to the situation of Christians in Indonesia, Pakistan and the North of Africa. Jan Figel, the EU Special Envoy, revealed that he is working with his colleagues to emphasize in their contacts with countries where persecution occurs that the most important concept to defend is \u201ccitizenship\u201d, promoting equality to all regardless of their faith.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\">The members of the European Parliament concluded with a note of gratitude to the participants and for the insightful information as well as the need to review the instruments at their disposal to promote freedom of religion and religious literacy.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\"><em>Aid to the Church in Need Public Affairs, through the dissemination of its &#8220;Religious Freedom&#8221; and &#8220;Persecuted and Forgotten?&#8221; reports as well as by facilitating first-hand testimony\u00a0from\u00a0project partners working on the ground,\u00a0seeks to help inform policy-makers on issues related to the persecution of Christians around the world.\u00a0<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h5><span style=\"color: #000000;\"><em><strong>Marcela Szymanski &#8211; ACN International<\/strong><\/em><\/span><\/h5>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>European Parliament holds the first ever Public Hearing on Persecuted Christians\u00a0 &nbsp; Aid to the Church in Need invited to present its recently published report\u00a0&#8220;Persecuted and Forgotten?&#8221; and comment on possible solutions As \u201cRed Wednesday\u201d was being observed in many countries around the world commemorating the sacrifice of the martyrs of their faith, the European&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":26327,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[19],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-26273","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-e-newsletters"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v24.2 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>European Parliament holds the first ever Public Hearing on Persecuted Christians Marcela Szymanski - ACN\u00a0 International - Aid to the Church in Need (Malta)<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/acnmalta.org\/_oldsite\/2017\/12\/12\/european-parliament-holds-first-ever-public-hearing-persecuted-christians-marcela-szymanski-acn-international\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"European Parliament holds the first ever Public Hearing on Persecuted Christians Marcela Szymanski - ACN\u00a0 International - Aid to the Church in Need (Malta)\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"European Parliament holds the first ever Public Hearing on Persecuted Christians\u00a0 &nbsp; 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