Mariam Ibrahim was arrested for apostasy and adultery because Sharia law mandated that she was a Muslim, like her father, even though she had been raised as a practicing Christian. She shared a powerful testimony at the international launch of the 2025 Religious Freedom Report. More than 20 speakers from [...]
Shagufta Kausar was sentenced to death for alleged blasphemy and spent over eight years in prison. She recently shared her story at the launching of the Religious Freedom in the World Report, in Rome. In the summer of 2013, a mob broke into the simple house where Shagufta Kausar lived [...]
This was the 20th edition of ACN’s One Million Children Praying the Rosary campaign. Pope Leo XIV kept up the tradition of his predecessor, Pope Francis, by promoting the One Million Children Praying the Rosary campaign, organised by Aid to the Church in Need (ACN), on social media, with a [...]
The parish priest of Gaza called on his flock to “forgive all those who have failed and to ask forgiveness” for their own shortcomings, as preparation for what he hopes will be an end to this war. Father Gabriel Romanelli, parish priest of the Holy Family Church in Gaza, shared [...]
On 10 October 2025, His Holiness Pope Leo XIV received the pontifical foundation Aid to the Church in Need (ACN) International in a private audience at the Vatican, marking 25 years of the foundation’s continued mission to defend the right to religious freedom and to give a voice to Christians [...]
The Church in Syria has been sheltering families during renewed violence in Syria following the recent election. Speaking to Aid to the Church in need, Father Hugo Alaniz, who has been a missionary in Aleppo for more than a decade said the last 24 hours have been harrowing for the [...]
As Sudan reels from civil war and displacement, Aid to the Church in Need (ACN) is standing firm with the Church and its people - empowering catechists, supporting missionaries, and helping communities hold fast to their faith. Father Jorge Naranjo, a Spanish Comboni missionary now based in Port Sudan, recently [...]
For many students at the Catholic University in Erbil (CUE), childhood was marked by sorrow, fleeing, and fear. But through the compassion of Aid to the Church in Need (ACN), those heartbreaking stories are being rewritten. ACN scholarships have given students like Yohanna Yaqub Alzebari not just a chance to [...]
Religious sisters have been holding the fort – dealing with wild youths – in a remote part of Cuba that priests can only visit once a month. The Missionary Sisters of Jesus, Word and Victim (Misioneras de Jesús Verbo y Víctima) (JVV) have been entrusted with the parish of Guasimal [...]
In Guerrero, one of the most violent states in Mexico, faith is the last refuge for a people who live under the weight of organised crime. Bishop José de Jesus González of the Diocese of Chilpancingo-Chilapa carries out his pastoral mission with a commitment that has put him, quite literally, [...]
