USA – A good news for religious freedom

Aid to the Church in Need (ACN) congratulates U.S. legislators for renewed commitments to religious freedom A bill approved by the U.S. Congress will go a long way in helping to fund efforts to promote religious freedom in countries where it is lacking. Pontifical charity Aid to the Church in Need (ACN) has expressed its …

Pakistan – Desperate plea for Christian man put on death row

The chair of the Catholic (National) Commission for Justice and Peace (CCJP) in Pakistan has condemned a court for ordering the death sentence on a Christian man found guilty of blasphemy in connection with one of the worst atrocities against minorities in the country’s history. Bishop Samson Shukardin of Hyderabad, president of the Catholic Bishops’ …

Nigeria: Kidnapped priest goes free

Nigerian priest Father Mikah Suleiman was released last night (Sunday, July 7) after more than two weeks in captivity. The parish priest of St. Raymond’s Catholic Church, in Damba, Zamfara State, had been abducted from his presbytery in Sokoto Diocese, North-West Nigeria, in the early hours of Saturday, June 22. In the days that followed, fears for …

Iraq: “Christians are like olive trees. You can burn them, but they will still bear fruit.”

Many feared that the invasion of their homelands would drive Christians from Iraq for good, but ten years after being driven from their homelands by militants of the Islamic State (ISIS), thousands of Christians have returned to houses in the Nineveh Plains rebuilt with the help of ACN, taking with them their love for the …

Pakistan calls for“swift and impartial justice” following mob killing of Christian man

Christians in Pakistan have demanded Punjab officials bring to justice the perpetrators of the brutal attack on Nazir Gill Masih in Sargodha, which resulted in his death. (Photo : Church authorities meet police chief after attack, May 25). In a recent report sent to the international Catholic charity Aid to the Church in Need (ACN), …

Red Wednesday, November 20

Save the Date! Press Release – For Immediate Release Montreal, June 17, 2024 – The international Red Wednesday event will be observed in Canada on Wednesday, November 20. Aid to the Church in Need (ACN) Canada is already inviting parishes, dioceses, religious communities, and all other ecclesial institutions as well as civil society organizations to …

Pakistan: Another victim of religious persecution

On June 3, Nazir Gill Masih, a 72-year-old Christian, succumbed to his injuries. A resident of Sargodha, a town in Punjab province, he had been beaten by a mob falsely accusing him of blasphemy 10 days earlier. (Cover photo : On May 25, Archbishop Joseph Arshad and Christian Senator Tahir Khalil Sindu visited the police …

A Christian family in Pakistan attacked by an angry mob

A Christian was brutally beaten after a false accusation of burning pages of the Quran. A mob of fanatics destroyed their house and business. The victim is in hospital, in critical condition. (Cover photo: Screen capture). A Christian family in Pakistan suffered a violent attack at the hands of an angry mob of Muslim fanatics this …

Nigeria – Heroic staff save pupils as gunmen attack Catholic school at night

Hundreds of children have been kidnapped from schools across Nigeria over the past years, but fortunately the latest attack on a catholic school was foiled and nobody was killed or abducted. The quick thinking of a headteacher helped save the lives of sleeping students after armed extremists stormed a secondary school in Nigeria’s Middle Belt …

“The light of faith and the witness of the Gospel can shine again.”

Darayya, Syria Fifteen Catholic families are able to return to the Christian quarter of a suburb of Damascus thanks to the reconstruction of their homes with the help of ACN. This will secure the Christian presence in the place where, according to various Christian traditions, the conversion of the Apostle Paul occurred.  An elderly couple …