Nigerian priest Father Mikah Suleiman was released last night (Sunday, July 7) after more than two weeks in captivity. The parish priest of St. Raymond’s Catholic Church, in Damba, Zamfara State, had been abducted from his presbytery in Sokoto Diocese, North-West Nigeria, in the early hours of Saturday, June 22. In the days that followed, fears for …
Author archives: mariobard
East Timor – Pope’s visit expected to be a source of hope and many blessings
Devotion to the Catholic Church is one of the distinguishing aspects of East Timorese culture. Francis will be the second pope to visit the territory, but the first since independence. East Timor is one of the world’s youngest countries, having obtained independence in 2002. Pope Francis’ visit from September 9 to 11 this year will …
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Iraq: “Christians are like olive trees. You can burn them, but they will still bear fruit.”
Many feared that the invasion of their homelands would drive Christians from Iraq for good, but ten years after being driven from their homelands by militants of the Islamic State (ISIS), thousands of Christians have returned to houses in the Nineveh Plains rebuilt with the help of ACN, taking with them their love for the …
Dominican Republic – Faith and hope in the bateyes
In Batey 5, a peripheral area of the Diocese of Barahona on the border with Haiti, three missionaries, with the support of Aid to the Church in Need (ACN), help fight poverty and social exclusion in the neediest parish in one of the poorest dioceses in the Dominican Republic. Not far from the luxurious resorts …
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ACN Success Story – Democratic Republic of the Congo
10 motorcycles for pastoral work in rural parishes The Diocese of Boma lies in the west of the Democratic Republic of the Congo and 35 of the 47 parishes that belong to it are located in remote rural areas. The priests minister to the faithful with joy and great zeal, but the distances are daunting, …
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ACN Project of the Week-Uganda
Help for the training of 30 seminarians The Diocese of Nebbi lies in the north of Uganda, in a region that suffered greatly from the internal warfare between the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) and the Ugandan government from 1987 to 2006. Whole areas of this region were devastated and destroyed, and the consequences are still …
DRC-Bishop calls on authorities to end the torment of the Congolese people
After new massacres in North-Kivu, Msgr. Sikuli Paluku, bishop of Butembo-Beni, in a message sent to Aid to the Church in Need (ACN), denounced the atrocities committed by the Allied Democratic Forces (ADF) since the beginning of June 2024. The bishop insists that there cannot be a separation between faith and the defence of human …
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Archbishop in Southern Lebanon: “We find ourselves in a state of war!”
Aid to the Church in Need (ACN) and the local Church are calling for prayers so that peace may be restored to the region. Daily rocket fire in Southern Lebanon is plunging the population into deeper poverty than they were already suffering as a result of the terrible financial crisis in 2019. The Church is …
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ACN Project of the Week – Colombia
Subsistence aid for four missionary sisters The sisters of Saint Vincent have been working since 1997 in Vitoco, in Southwest Colombia. Their mission in this mountain region covers eight Indigenous reserves and 36 villages. Distances are long and the roads are difficult. Even with a car, it takes two to three hours to reach some …
Annual Report 2023: $209.8 million in donations to help Christians in need in 138 countries
Königstein-Montreal, June 20, 2024 — Aid to the Church in Need released its Annual Report for 2023, which once again reflected the generosity of its benefactors from all around the world to help suffering Christians and the Church in Need. Ukraine, Syria, and Lebanon were the countries that received the most aid in 2023, while …