The Hungary Helps programme was launched in 2017 by the Hungarian government with the aim of providing humanitarian help to people in need around the world. They have put a special focus on oppressed Christians in the Middle East. Their latest project is the building of a church at the site of Jesus Christ’s baptism on the Jordanian bank of the Jordan River.
The construction has been finished, and the church has recently been concentrated by Archbishop Pierbattista Pizzaballa.
According to statements made by State Secretary Tristan Azbej to Atv.hu, a Jordanian Christian community reached out to Hungary Helps to aid the funding of the construction of the new shrine.
‘This is an important message of the Hungary Helps programme. Christians in the Middle East and the Holy Land are not alone. It is true that the Christian West has abandoned them. However, our message in supporting the building of the church is that we Christians in the West, and Christians in the minority here in the Middle East, Christians facing all kinds of crises, the believers in Christ in the cradle of Christianity, we stand together and take responsibility for each other,’ State Secretary for the Aid of Persecuted Christians Tristan Azbej has stated.
The number of Christians living in the Holy Land has gradually decreased over the years. Many of them are leaving the sites where the most important events in Jesus’ life took place due to the constant armed conflicts and hostile governments towards Christians.
This site in particular is where Jesus Christ was baptized by John the Baptist. Matthew 3:13–17 describes the events as such: Jesus travelled from Galilee to Jordan to be baptized by John. John protested, claiming that it should be Jesus who baptizes him, not the other way around. Jesus insisted, and John followed through with the ritual. Then, according to the New Testament: ‘As soon as Jesus was baptized, he went up out of the water. At that moment heaven was opened, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and alighting on him. And a voice from heaven said, “This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased.”’
Related articles:
