The number of kidnappings also dropped slightly compared to 2024 but remains a major problem in parts of Africa. Fewer priests were arrested or kidnapped in 2025 compared to 2024, but the numbers remain worrying in many parts of the world according to data collected by the international organization Aid to the Church in Need …
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The Catholic Diocese of Kontagora has reported a violent overnight attack on St. Mary’s Catholic Primary and Secondary Schools in Papiri, Niger State, Nigeria, resulting in “the kidnapping of pupils, students, teachers, and school personnel, as well as a security guard who was badly shot.” According to the statement sent to Aid to the Church …
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The attack represents “a major blow to the education of young girls, which is already quite rare in these parts of the country,” say local sources. The abduction of around 25 students from the Government Girls’ Comprehensive Secondary School in Maga, in Nigeria’s north-western state of Kebbi, has plunged the community into deep shock. A …
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The West African nation has been classified as suffering from severe, systematic and ongoing religious freedom violations. (Cover image: AI-generated image for illustrative purposes only). Aid to the Church in Need (ACN) has received an official communication from the Archdiocese of Kaduna, Nigeria, reporting the abduction of a priest following a violent attack on the …
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“We feel that we are alone”: the priest echoes the pain of the Christian community after the Damascus attack last Sunday. Father Fadi Azar, Syrian priest, speaks about the situation of Christians “Christians in Syria are feeling a great pain. The Christian community throughout Syria is going through a moment of deep sadness: the loss …
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A report compiled by Franciscan priest Lazar Aslam describes the plight of young girls and women who are subjected to rape, kidnapping, and forced marriage in a country where the law rarely affords Christians equal rights. (Banner photo: Published in 2022, the report Hear Her Cries highlighted the violence committed against women from religious minorities, …
Continue reading “Pakistan: Christian girls continue to suffer from abuse and discrimination”
Father Alphonsus Afina was kidnapped on Sunday, June 1, in the Diocese of Maiduguri. The auxiliary bishop of Maiduguri, Nigeria, has called for urgent prayers for one of his priests who was kidnapped by jihadist terrorists. In a message sent to Aid to the Church in Need – International (ACN), Bishop John Bogna Bakeni said …
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“Six hundred and ninety-eight, six hundred and ninety-nine, seven hundred.” Mathieu passes pebbles from one side to another. Seven hundred in all, one for each of the Hail Marys he has prayed that night. A night which to him feels like the evening in Gethsemane, in the Garden of Olives, where Jesus also felt alone, …
Sister Helena Queijo spent nine years in one of the most dangerous countries in the world, where armed gangs run rampant and even clergy and religious are under constant threat. A religious sister who spent most of the past decade in Haiti has spoken to Aid to the Church in Need (ACN) about the …
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The murder of seminarian Andrew Peter follows the recent killing of Fr Sylvester Okechukwu. Nigeria has had three times more kidnappings of clergy and religious in the first three months of 2025 than in the same period of 2024. (Cover photo: Pray to Christ on the cross for the suffering Church in Nigeria. Add your …
Continue reading “Nigerian Church in pain as 21-year-old seminarian murder”
