SYRIA “ Our job is to stand by the sick”         Sisters caring for Syria’s sick and wounded throughout five years of heavy bombardment have received essential medical equipment from Aid to the Church in Need. The charity has provided the Sisters of St Joseph of the Apparition who run [...]

CHINA President seeks more control over religion   In a speech during the 19th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, President Xi Jinping announced that he wants to tighten Beijing’s strict government controls on religion in the communist country. Xi claimed that religions not sufficiently conformed to Communist [...]

PHILIPPINES Bishops start rosary campaign against violent drug war   The Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines has called for a prayer campaign urging Filipinos to pursue healing and repentance to stop the escalating violence in the conflict between police and drug traffickers. The prayer campaign involves praying the rosary [...]

SPAIN Sixty Vincentians martyred during Spanish Civil War beatified   60 members of the Vincentian Order who were martyred during the Spanish Civil War were beatified at a Mass in Madrid, a “celebration of hope, faith and forgiveness.” They include Vicente Queralt Lloret and 20 companions, and José Maria Fernández [...]

MACEDONIA "The Catholic church is like a little family”   Magda Kaczmarek, section head of the international Catholic pastoral charity Aid to the Church in Need (ACN) for Macedonia, visited the south-east European country in June 2017. In the following interview, she describes the first impressions that she was able [...]

SYRIA Aleppo – the needy helping the neediest   The young people of Aleppo are helping with aid projects in the city. The Orthodox Youth Movement, which is assisting 2,200 Christian families each month in the Syrian city of Aleppo, is being supported by Aid to the Church in Need [...]

IRAQ West must act now to save Iraqi Christians   The timing could not be better. In an Oct. 25th address, Vice President Mike Pence conveyed President Trump’s pledge that the US Government will channel aid more directly to Christians, Yazidis and other persecuted religious minorities in Iraq. The vice-president pledged that “the [...]

MALI When God touched the heart of a persecutor of Christians   The Brazilian national office of ACN invited Moussa Diabate from Mali in Africa to tell his story during a Day of Prayer for Persecuted Christians. Standing at the foot of the great statue of Christ the Redeemer in [...]