For more than 70 years, Aid to the Church in Need (ACN) has been involved with refugees and displaced people worldwide. In the face of growing migration, the international Catholic charity continues to bring hope through its projects in crisis zones of the Middle East, Latin America, Africa, and Europe. (Cover photo: migrants participate in a mass honouring them in Argentina).
On the 110th World Day of Migrants and Refugees, September 29, Pontifical Charity Aid to the Church in Need (ACN) wishes to draw attention to the precarious situation of affected people.
According to the International Organisation for Migration (IOM), the number of people living in a country other than their country of birth has continuously grown in the last few decades. Current estimates place the number at over 280 million people. According to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), at the end of 2023, over 117 million people worldwide were forcibly displaced. Along the refugee and migration routes, people are often exposed to severe danger, rape, torture, abduction, arbitrary detention, robbery, and human trafficking.
In 1947, emergency relief for persecuted and displaced Christians was the incentive for the founding of ACN – at that time still known as Ostpriesterhilfe – and it has therefore been among the priorities of the charity since its birth. ACN continues to be engaged worldwide for the alleviation of the suffering of those who have been displaced.
Because Christians are at risk of extinction in the Middle East due to millions of people being driven out by ongoing conflicts, this region remains an important focus for the charity. Among other things, ACN helps families and young people to become independent so that they can stay in their homeland.
Help for internally displaced people and refugees in Africa is concentrated on countries like Burkina Faso, Nigeria and Mozambique, which are affected by Islamist violence and ongoing poverty, and supports churches in providing pastoral care and help for refugees.
Many countries in Latin America also face considerable social, economic, and pastoral challenges because of a wave of migration, particularly from Venezuela, Haiti, Cuba, and Nicaragua. ACN supports local churches, encouraging pastoral work and making resources available to better cope with the flood of migrants and the rapid growth of cities as a result of the rural exodus.
Finally, in Europe, the focus of ACN lies particularly on Ukraine and providing support to the local church in taking care of refugees and war victims, for which some $22.4 million has been made available since the beginning of the Russian war of aggression on Ukraine in 2022.
The Catholic Church established the World Day of Migrants and Refugees in 1914, to draw attention to the situation of migrants and refugees worldwide. The motto which Pope Francis has chosen for this year is God walks with his people. In his message for this year, the pope emphasizes: “God not only walks with his people, but also within them, in the sense that he identifies himself with men and women on their journey through history, particularly with the least, the poor and the marginalized. In this we see an extension of the mystery of the Incarnation.”
PRAYER TO MARY, COMFORT OF MIGRANTS
Virgin Mary,
Solacium migrantium, “Solace of Migrants”,
you who were a migrant,
in the company of Jesus your son
and Joseph your husband,
bless and accompany all the people
who far from their own people and their land
seek a more dignified life.
Strengthen them so that they may remain faithful
in the way of God.
Help them to find generous people
who in times of difficulty
reach out to them.
Keep alive and strong
the love of their families and friends.
Mary, Comfort of migrants,
to all those who experience migration, we place them under your maternal protection.
Amen.
