In an event held at the Spanish Embassy to the Holy See on Thursday, 23 February, the initiative #StandTogether, an international and ecumenical project for persecuted Christians has been presented.
At the ceremony, the Syro-Catholic Patriarch of Antioch, S. B. Ignace Youssef III Younan, has intervened in the first place and has described the situation that the Middle East region is experiencing as a real nightmare. He has also pointed out that Christians in Iraq have passed, in a decade, from 1 million to 300 thousand and that it will be difficult for them to return, when peace comes if they are not helped.
Secondly, the Grand Hospitaller of the Sovereign Order of Malta, S. E. Dominique Prince de la Rochefoucaul-Montbel, has taken the floor he recalled the Order’s commitment to the Middle East region where it has carried out numerous activities in the field of medical care and others in Jordan, Lebanon and Palestine for a long time. For this reason he has been willing to collaborate with the new initiative from the outset.
Next the director of the International Centre for Communion and Liberation, Mr. Roberto Fontolan, has spoken. He emphasized that the main objective of the project is to spread among the public the testimony of the Middle East Christians to bring us closer together and share the riches and the enormous gift of Christian life in this region of the world.
Finally, the CEO of Rome Reports TV, Mr. Antonio Olivié, highlighted the role of the Foundation for Social Promotion of Culture as the founder of the project and explained the contents of the website that has been running since last November and which already has thousands of followers in social networks. The site will produce and collect information from other media on persecuted religious minorities and will be handed over to those who wish to disseminate them.
Finally, the Ambassador has offered a reception to the more than one hundred attendees to the event, among them diplomatic representatives accredited to the Holy See, members of the Roman Curia and journalists.