Nigeria -No justice for 300 people massacred on Christmas Eve

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 …

ACN to focus on Middle East, Sahel, and Latin America in 2024

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 …

Fulani herders kill nearly 200 Christians at Christmas in central Nigeria

Terrorists caused death and destruction during the Christmas holidays among the Christian communities in Bokkos, Barkin Ladi, and Mangu (but Bokkos was the epicentre) Plateau State, central Nigeria. The executive president of ACN, Regina Lynch, regrets yer another episode of violence against Christians in Nigeria. “This year began with the brutal murder of Fr Isaac …

Iraq – “Please God, no more war.”

People in Iraq are terrified that the war in the Holy Land will engulf the region, according to a leading archbishop, who is calling on governments around the world to work to bring peace. These were the words he shared on November 3 during a visit to Westminster Abbey, which John Pontifex of our UK …

GAZA: “I am heartbroken”, Sister Nabila about the bombing of her school

The plight and suffering of the Christian community in Gaza intensify every day One month after the beginning of the current war in the Holy Land, the consequences for the small Christian community in Gaza can be described as terrible. According to a project partner of the Catholic charity Aid to the Church in Need …

Cameroon – Bishop asks Europe to help slow migration by creating jobs in Africa

As the crisis of African migration to Europe deepens, those who are on the front line are issuing an urgent call to action. During a visit to the head office of Aid to the Church in Need (ACN), Bishop Bruno Ateba Edo of the Diocese of Maroua-Mokolo, in the far north of Cameroon, shared his …

Pakistan – Parishioners gather for Mass outside their torched church

There were tears of sadness and fear in Pakistan on Sunday (20th August) as a crowd of 700 attended Mass outside their burnt-out church following one of the country’s worst outbreaks of persecution in a generation. Amid tight security, Bishop Indrias Rehmat of Faisalabad presided at the Mass held in the streets of Jaranwala where …

ACN Project of the Week – Ukraine

Helping to support internally displaced persons in a church youth centre The war in Ukraine has prompted the greatest wave of refugees since the Second World War. In total, almost 15 million people have been forced to flee—around seven million of these within their own country. Many have found shelter in Church-run facilities. Currently, 98 …

India – Government-sponsored Hindu nationalism at root of interreligious clashes in Manipur

Local Church sources have little doubt that the clashes that have pitted Hindus against Christians in the state of Manipur are part of a wider agenda to encourage the Hindu base to vote for the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in upcoming elections. The fierce clashes that have been going on for weeks in the …

Mozambique: Church focused on promoting interreligious dialogue in terrorist-plagued north

The Catholic Church has been playing a discrete but important role around dialogue that could effectively end the plague of terrorist violence in northern Mozambique. Father Eduardo Roca, a project partner of Aid to the Church in Need (ACN), founded the Interreligious Centre for Peace, in the Diocese of Pemba, in 2017—the same year terrorist …