Spring 2025, a New Magazine for ACN Canada Press Release – For Immediate Release Montreal, April 2, 2025 – Hope, the theme of Jubilee 2025, is at the heart of Aid to the Church in Need (ACN) Canada’s new Spring 2025 Magazine, available on the national branch’s website at: https://acn-canada.org/magazine/. (Cover photo: a young seminarian from …
Tag archives: Persecuted Christians
Burkina Faso – Church, God’s Family: 125 Years of Evangelization
Burkina Faso is celebrating 125 years of evangelization in a country currently marred by violence and terrorism. The African nation occupies first place on the Global Terrorism Index 2025 and suffers from severe security issues, constant attacks against civilian populations, and entire regions that can only be reached by helicopter. Despite this situation, the Church …
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Young Christian Brutally Attacked in Pakistan
A 22-year-old Christian man, Waqas Masih, was brutally attacked by his supervisor, Zohaib, at the Subhan Paper Mills factory located in Sheikhupura, Pakistani Punjab. The incident, which took place on March 22, highlights the persistent religious intolerance present in much of Pakistani society. According to reports from the victim’s family received by the international Catholic …
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10 Years Later: Akash Bashir remains an inspiration in Pakistan and around the world
March 15 2025 marked the tenth anniversary of the death of Akash Bashir, a 20-year-old Catholic who sacrificed his life to save hundreds of people when he intercepted a suicide bomber trying to access the church of Saint John, in Youhanabad, in the Diocese of Lahore, Pakistan. That act led to his being raised to …
Nigerian Church in pain as 21-year-old seminarian murder
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 …
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Sorrow and indignation over murder of Nigerian priest
Since 2021, at least one pastoral agent has been murdered every year in the Diocese of Kafanchan. The bishop of the Diocese of Kafanchan in Kaduna State, Nigeria, has expressed his “deep sorrow and righteous indignation” over the abduction and subsequent murder of one of his priests. Fr. Sylvester Okechukwu was abducted from his residence …
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Priest kidnapped and murdered in Nigeria
A total of five priests and two religious sisters have been kidnapped in Nigeria this year alone. Besides Fr. Sylvester Okechukwu, who was murdered, two remain missing, while the other four were released. (Cover photo: A destroyed crucifix in Burkina Faso, a country where the security situation for Christians is challenging too.) A Catholic priest …
DR Congo: Local ACN sources confirm massacre with 70 bodies found in North Kivu church
Over 70 bodies were found in a Protestant church in a village near Lubero, North Kivu, according to local sources contacted by the international Catholic charity Aid to the Church in Need (ACN). The killings took place between February 12 and 15, in a village called Maiba, near Lubero. On February 12, rebels from an …
Massacres spoil Christmas celebrations in Nigeria
In December—including on Christmas Day—a series of attacks on Christian communities left dozens dead, according to recent reports from local Church sources shared with Aid to the Church in Need (ACN). Dozens of Christians were killed in attacks at and around Christmas time in Nigeria, especially in Benue State. News of these attacks only recently …
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Burkina Faso: “When the catechist’s family has food, then the whole community has something to eat”
The Diocese of Nouna thanks Aid to the Church in Need (ACN) for supporting catechists. (Cover photo: Emmanuel is one of the catechists who, because of his extreme poverty, is one of the food aid recipients). Thanks to help from the international pontifical charity Aid to the Church in Need (ACN), the Burkinabé Diocese of …