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In the world, one Christian dies for his faith every five minutes, and 105,000 Christians die of violent death as result of religious conflicts every year. With those figures, the International Conference about "Religious freedom: the question of Christian discrimination and persecution" opened in Moscow yesterday; it was promoted by the Patriarchate of Moscow concluding today with the publication of a final document meant to let the international public focus on the fact that “Christians are the most persecuted religious community in the world”. In this sense, works were opened by President of the Department for External Ecclesiastic Relations of the Patriarchate of Moscow, Metropolitan Hilarion. Representatives of the Catholic Church, including Msgr. Paolo Pezzi, archbishop of the diocese of Moscow, and Archbishop Edwin Joseph Ender, special representative of the Holy See at the Conference spoke and took part in the works. Representatives of the Orthodox Churches of Alexandria, Antioch, Jerusalem, Armenia and Assyria were also present in the auditorium.
Metropolitan Hilarion has listed all “the countries where Christians are the most persecuted today”, and suggested to establish “a permanent centre for gathering and studying information on persecution for religious reasons”. And he added: “Every case of persecution of Christians should be the subject of legal proceedings". Moreover, the Orthodox Metropolitan asked the United Nations “to ask Member States for respect of the generally accepted rules of religious freedom", and he also stated that according to him, the Pan-Orthodox Council of all Orthodox Churches in the world should also include the question of persecution of Christians in several parts on the world in its agenda. In a video message to the participants in the Conference, President of the UN Council for Human Rights Laura Lasserre pointed out that conscience and religious freedoms are a fundamental human right, and that it is necessary to look for “ways to promote mutual understanding and tolerance, to prevent violence and discrimination against Christians”.

© www.agensir.it - dember 1st 2011