Nigeria: prayers requests for two abducted sisters in Anambra

ATTENTION, update: the two religious sisters were released on January 13. Thank you for your prayers, and please continue to pray for those oppressed by kidnapping. Two religious sisters, Vincentia Nwankwo and Grace Okoli, were abducted this past Tuesday, January 7 in Anambra State in southeastern Nigeria. They belong to the congregation of the Sisters …

ACN Project of the Week – Chad

Supporting the seminarians of the Apostolic Vicariate of Mongo Chad is a landlocked country in Central Africa, on the southern edge of the Sahara. Its surface area is almost 1.3 million square kilometres (by comparison, Quebec is 1.7 million km²), but with just over 16 million inhabitants, the country is relatively sparsely populated. The majority …

Mozambique –  “What will become of us?”

Cabo Delgado was the area most affected by the fury of Cyclone Chido, which swept through Mozambique in the early hours of Sunday, December 15, after causing destruction in the French archipelago of Mayotte. There are dozens of fatalities and thousands of people asking how they will survive after having lost everything. In an initial …

ACN Success Story: Malawi

New chapels for two remote villages Malawi, a landlocked country of Southern Africa, is among the poorest countries in the world. The parish of Benga lies in the east of the country, close to Lake Malawi, in a region of great poverty. Though only established in 2013, the parish has already witnessed 6,000 baptisms. Still, …

Aid to the Church in Need dedicates Christmas campaign to persecuted Christians in Burkina Faso

Montreal/Königstein, November 28, 2024 – Press Release Since 2015, Burkina Faso, which is around 25% Christian, has become a hotbed of violent Islamist extremism. Since 2019 in particular, priests, religious, and faithful have been increasingly targeted by terrorists. Pontifical Charity Aid to the Church in Need (ACN) will focus its Christmas campaign this year on …

ACN’s Project of the Week – Mozambique

Strengthening pastoral outreach in the parish of Manica The parish of Our Lady of the Rosary is based in Manica in the Diocese of Chimoio in central western Mozambique. It covers an extensive rural area with a radius of around 70 km and includes 74 smaller villages and hamlets, 58 of which have their own …

Persecution of Christians has worsened across the globe

New Aid to the Church in Need (ACN) report Press release – For Immediate Release Montreal/Königstein, November 12, 2024 – According to a new report published in Canada today, the persecution of Christians has worsened considerably in most of the countries surveyed. Persecuted and Forgotten? provides a global and regional analysis, examining the situation of …

ACN Success Story: Zimbabwe

Host baking machines for the Poor Clares Eight Poor Clare Sisters live in their convent in Harare, the capital of Zimbabwe, and another young woman is hoping to join them. They live a strict enclosed life of prayer, penance, and especially Eucharistic adoration, in which they include all the needs and concerns of the entire …

Nigeria – Priest trades places with two seminarians about to be kidnapped

Kidnapping for ransom has become an industry in Nigeria, and priests are often targeted. A priest was kidnapped from the minor seminary where he worked, last Sunday, and taken by armed bandits into the bush. Armed gunmen broke into the Immaculate Conception Minor Seminary, in the Diocese of Auchi, Edo State, Nigeria, at around 7 …

Mozambique – Bishop recalls “seven years of death and suffering” in Cabo Delgado

Bishop António Juliasse says Aid to the Church in Need (ACN) continues to be a “friendly hand,” standing by the local Church in times of need and since the beginning of the conflict, which has already killed over 5,000 people and displaced over one million. Seven years after the beginning of the Islamist insurgency, the …