Another possible reason for Francis’ lack of criticism is that some of these governments have in fact provided other forms of assistance to help ease the crisis. Hungary and Poland, for example, have each developed a strategy of assistance for Middle Eastern refugees in their home countries, responding to Christian leaders from Syria, Iraq, and Lebanon who begged the Church to provide in-country aid, in order to preserve Christianity’s ongoing presence in the Middle East.
The Polish Ministry of Foreign Affairs, often working in concert with the Catholic aid organization Caritas Poland, has provided extensive assistance to refugees in Jordan, Iraq, and Lebanon, as well as $13.5 million in 2016 for Syria-focused construction and repair of hospitals, homes, and schools damaged during the war.
Meanwhile, at an August 2016 International Catholic Legislators Network meeting in Frascati, Italy, Orban was particularly moved by presentations from patriarchs representing the Syriac Orthodox Church in Damascus; the Syriac Catholic Church based in Beirut; the Maronite Church based in Bkerke, Lebanon; and the Melkite Greek Catholic Church based in Aleppo. Orban also met Pope Francis while in Italy. According to Eduard von Habsburg, Hungary’s ambassador to the Holy See, Orban decided on the spot to create a government department dedicated to helping persecuted Christians in the Middle East within Hungary’s Ministry of Human Resources. The office’s original budget of $3.35 million tripled in 2017 to $10 million. Funds have been used to rebuild schools, churches, houses, and clinics. And last year, Hungary spent almost $2.5 million to help over 1,000 families return to their homes in Telsqof, a town on the Nineveh Plain that had been overrun by the Islamic State (or ISIS) in 2014.
