“We have accompanied the successive appeals by Pope Francis calling for the international community to wake up to the gravity of the situation of Christians persecuted in various countries around the world – Christianity is today the most persecuted religion in global terms –, as continues to happen in the Near East and as well as recently in Kenya to mention but two of the most flagrant situations” said Clemente.


The Cardinal Patriarch added that “Portuguese dioceses were sharing such concerns through both prayer and material help” but that society as a whole had to keep such issues on its “political and humanitarian agenda.”


The 186th plenary assembly is meeting to discuss the theme of family and as well as reviewing its own institutional performance and preparations for the run-up to the centenary celebrations of the founding of Fátima as a site for pilgrimage following the apparitions seen there.