Three motorized rickshaws for pastoral work in Mitú The Vicariate Apostolic of Mitú lies in the Amazon region of eastern Colombia in an area covering over 54,000 km². Roughly a third of its population of 45,000 people live in the town of Mitú itself. The remainder live scattered throughout this jungle-clad region and most of them …
Category archives: Americas
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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Central America-A “gap” of inhumanity
Latin American bishop cries out over Darién crisis The archbishop of Panama spoke to Aid to the Church in Need (ACN) about his experience in the region of the Darién Gap, one of the most inhospitable migratory routes in Latin America. Archbishop José Domingo Ulloa Mendieta highlighted the urgent need for attention and action in …
Mexico: Priest threatened with death
“I feel like a war chaplain” On June 2, Mexicans went to the polls and, for the first time in their history, elected a woman to the country’s presidency, Claudia Sheinbaum. She is considered by many observers to be the runner-up to her predecessor, Andrés Manuel López Obrador. Among the challenges that await her during …
ACN Project of the Week – Costa Rica
Renovation of a formation house refectory The monastery of Our Lady of Guadalupe is situated in the city of Belén in Costa Rica and also serves as the formation house for the postulants of the Order of Friars Minor Conventual, in Central America. At present, there are six brothers there—two of them fully professed, as …
Haiti-Catholic bishops plead for an end to violence and for national reconciliation
Aid to the Church in Need (ACN) will be joining the day of prayer on March 22 for the people of Haiti. In a message dated March 18, the Catholic bishops of Haiti expressed profound concern about the violence that is sweeping the country. The letter, which was sent to international Catholic charity Aid to …
A dark weekend of Christian persecution
Almost 30 Christians were killed or kidnapped in different incidents in three different countries over the past few days. Fifteen Christians were killed and two wounded in an attack on Catholics in Essakane, in the Diocese of Dori, Burkina Faso. The attack, which took place on Sunday, 25 February, was carried out by terrorists who …
Argentinian Patagonia: mission country
The Church in Patagonia faces unique challenges marked by vast distances, great diversity, and a lack of resources. One of the bishops in charge of overseeing the development of the Church in this vast territory of Argentina is Msgr. Roberto Álvarez, who sat down with Aid to the Church in Need (ACN) to share his …
Venezuela marks 140 years of the first Lourdes pilgrimage in the Americas
The pilgrimage was instituted in 1884 by Fr. Machado, the Venezuelan priest in the Diocese of La Guaira, after returning from a trip to the famous shrine to Our Lady of Lourdes in France. Tony Pereira, a lay member of the current organizing committee, spoke to Aid to the Church in Need (ACN) about the …
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Brazil: Sowing the seeds of the Gospel in the Amazon
By evangelizing and helping the Ticuna Indigenous people, the Capuchin friars, with support from Aid to the Church in Need, are helping to preserve the Amazon rainforest. “I have never left this place, I know nothing of the world, but I believe in God. He gives me eternal life. I called the friars here to …
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