Three weeks after extremists murdered more than 300 people, burnt down entire villages, and destroyed food supplies in coordinated attacks in Nigeria’s Plateau State, none of the perpetrators have been held to account. Masara Kim, a local journalist whose cousin was killed, told Catholic charity Aid to the Church in Need (ACN) that hundreds of …
Continue reading “Nigeria -No justice for 300 people massacred on Christmas Eve”
Subsistence support for four religious sisters The Missionaries of Jesus Word and Victim (Misioneras de Jesús Verbo y Victima) are religious sisters whose special vocation is to work in poor, remote, and difficult regions where there are few or no priests. Their congregation was founded in 1961 in Peru and is now present in seven …
But concerns over lack of religious freedom remain. Nineteen clerics were released and expelled from the country, adding to the dozens of others who have been exiled in the past few years. The restrictions on religious freedom continue in a country where four out of nine dioceses now have bishops living abroad, says Regina Lynch, …
Continue reading “Aid to the Church in Need welcomes release of priests in Nicaragua”
Aid to the Church in Need (ACN) provides health support to elderly religious sisters in Northeast Brazil. Despite their age, the sisters remain very active in their communities, and continue to pray for their benefactors. Being a consecrated religious is a lifelong commitment, and the Sisters of the Sacred Heart of Jesus in northeastern Brazil …
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Dozens of priests arrested in 2023 Thirteen priests and one religious brother were murdered in 2023, though half were killed for reasons apparently unrelated to persecution. Arrests increased, while kidnappings of clergy and religious dropped compared to 2022. Nonetheless, these cases remain a serious concern, especially in Africa. According to the numbers collected by Pontifical …
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Pontifical Charity Aid to the Church in Need has announced a second package of emergency aid for Christians who lost their livelihoods because of the war in Gaza. Aid to the Church in Need (ACN) will be supporting the Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem with $700,000 between January and April 2024, bringing the combined total amount …
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Heating for the parish church in Zaslaŭje The small town of Zaslaŭje in Belarus is around 25 kilometres north of the capital Minsk. The Catholic parish here has around 400 faithful. Their 18th-century church of the Nativity of Mary was shut down in Soviet times and used as a dump, being badly damaged in the …
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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Regina Lynch, executive president of Aid to the Church in Need (ACN), highlights the worrying increase in religious freedom violations around the world, but also the positive reaction to ACN campaigns such as Red Wednesday and One Million Children Praying the Rosary. You were nominated executive president in April 2023. What is your view for …
Continue reading “ACN to focus on Middle East, Sahel, and Latin America in 2024”
A chapel in the village of a vast parish The parish of the Immaculate Conception in Moharpara, in northeast India, lies close to the border with Bangladesh. It includes 31 different villages and serves a population of around 5,000 Catholics, most of them relatively young in age. The parish is vast, and many of the …
