Brexit 'obsession' has overshadowed issue of Christian persecution, says Prince Charles

The Prince of Wales has bemoaned that the public has paid a lot of attention to Brexit while the problem of Christian persecution in the Middle East has been largely ignored.

Prince Charles expressed his concern about the plight of Christians at a Lambeth Palace reception hosted by the Archbishop of Canterbury, the Most Reverend Justin Welby, Telegraph reported.

The prince, who was a guest of honor at the event, told his fellow guests that he believed a major report about religious persecution had "sunk without a trace" because it was overshadowed by Brexit.

"People are more interested and obsessed with Brexit than persecuted Christians," Charles said at the event on Thursday.

He said he was dismayed that there has been little coverage of the report published by Aid to the Church in Need (ACN), a Catholic charity that supports persecuted Christians.

Religious Freedom in the World Report 2016, which was launched in November, highlighted the decline of religious liberty in many parts of the world. The report noted that the most severe form of persecution was experienced by Christians and Yazidis in Syria and Iraq due to the rise of the Islamic State.

The prince posted a video message supporting the study, but it received little attention from the mainstream media.

"Prince Charles complained that the Aid to the Church in Need report had sunk without trace because people were so obsessed with Brexit," a source at the Lambeth Palace event said.

Charles' comments were well-received by the ACN, which acknowledged the donation it had received from the Prince of Wales' Charitable Foundation.

"Despite highlighting the genocidal attacks on Christians and other minorities in the Middle East, the secular press showed little interest in the Religious Freedom in the World Report and there was no national television coverage," said Neville Kyrke-Smith, ACN's national director.

"It is those who are suffering at this time who are left abandoned unless ACN and other charities respond to their terrible plight," he added.

The Lambeth Palace event was part of the 50th-anniversary celebrations of the Anglican Centre in Rome, which was established to improve relations between Anglican and Catholic churches.

Cardinal Vincent Nicholls, the leader of the Catholic Church in England and Wales, was one of the attendees of the event.