Hungary stands out for its aid to beleaguered Christians in Iraq

Photo courtesy Allen Kakkony/ACI MENA

The Hungarian president Katalin Novák visited Iraq last month and made a point to visit St. George Chaldean Catholic Church in Telskuf. Novák, a Reformed Christian, supports the efforts to rebuild with Hungarian support.

According to the Catholic News Agency, since 2017, Hungary has given an outsize proportion of the aid needed for persecuted Christians in Iraq and around the world to rebuild and sustain their livelihood. The country’s Hungary Helps program says it has enabled some 250,000 Christians to remain in their homelands.

Hungary’s aid model involves granting funds directly to the local Catholic or other Christian churches for rebuilding and helping Christian communities stay in their ancestral homelands. Iraq is home to one of the world’s oldest Christian communities; as recently as 2003, there were 1.4 million Christians in Iraq, but today there are fewer than 250,000. Pope Francis visited the beleaguered Christian community in Iraq in March 2021 to an enthusiastic welcome.

Hungarian President Katalin Novák (center) visited Iraq in early December 2022, stopping at a majority-Christian town that has been rebuilt in recent years almost entirely with Hungarian support, following years of occupation and devastation by the so-called Islamic State.