Pope Francis, during a special Mass to mark the 500th anniversary of the arrival of Christianity in the Philippines, has called on Filipinos to "persevere in the work of evangelization. "Pope Francis celebrated Mass in St. Peter's Basilica on Sunday with several representatives of the Filipino Church, including Cardinal Luis [...]
Fr. Johannes Kahn, S.J. has spent decades doing pastoral work in various countries in Eastern Europe, Central Asia as well as Russia. For almost ten years, he served a small Catholic minority in Kyrgyzstan. In February 2021, he spoke with Aid to the Church in Need (ACN). How did you [...]
On the bloodiest day since the coup in Myanmar began, Cardinal Charles Maung Bo, leader of the country’s Catholics, has made a fresh appeal for peace in the beleaguered nation. A letter from Cardinal Bo calling for an end to bloodshed was released on Sunday, 14th March – the same [...]
With backing from Aid to the Church in Need, Pakistan’s national Catholic Commission for Justice and Peace (CCJP) will start a campaign to protect and safeguard the rights of vulnerable girls from religious minorities. Fr. Emmanuel (Mani) Yousaf, Director of the CCJP, said that in 2020, “One of the most [...]
As an expression of their courageous faith, Christian rickshaw drivers are proclaiming their faith on public roads in the Islamic Republic of Pakistan. Most of them can be identified by Bible verses painted on the vehicle, rosaries hanging from the rearview mirror and stickers of the Holy Family. Article 20 [...]
Christians in Bangladesh say they are being persecuted after the demolition of a new church building in the remote Chittagong Hill Tracts region. About 200 Catholics and Protestants formed a human chain and held a silent protest on March 8 against the demolition of the Seventh-day Adventist Church building. A [...]
In an environment shaped by the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, Sister Alicia Vacas Moro, a Spanish missionary, has assisted traumatised refugees and asylum seekers. Comboni Sr. Alicia Vacas Moro, a Spanish missionary whose ministry has focused on humanitarian needs in the Middle East, is one of 14 women receiving this year's International [...]
Qaraqosh is home to Iraq’s largest church, dedicated to Mary’s Immaculate Conception. When ISIS took control of the city in August 2014, the church was vandalized, profaned, and burned. The bell tower was partially destroyed and statues beheaded, while pews were thrown to the courtyard, and the choir area used [...]
Surrounded by the relics of violence, war, and terrorism, Pope Francis Sunday told the Christian community of Iraq that they’re proof in flesh and blood of the victory of life over death. Speaking to a crowd that saw its girls and women sold as property by Islamic State terrorists, and [...]
Pope Francis is set to embark on the first-ever papal visit to the biblical land of Iraq this weekend in a kind of spiritual pilgrimage to the place known in Arabic as the "land of the two rivers" -- the mighty Tigris and Euphrates -- and once renowned as Mesopotamia, [...]
