A Combonian missionary nun living in Wau, South Sudan, believes the upcoming visit by Pope Francis to the youngest country in the world, scheduled for 5-7 July, could have an historic effect on the peace process. “The Pope will play a very, very important role. The Pope, the Christian churches [...]
To mark the World Day of Prayer for Vocations, celebrated on Good Shepherd Sunday, which this year falls on 8 May, Aid to the Church in Need (ACN) is sharing a series of testimonials of young men who have chosen to prepare for the priesthood. Currently over 100 thousand young [...]
A WAVE OF UNREST AND KIDNAPPINGS IS CAUSING A BREAKDOWN OF NATIONAL LIFE IN HAITI according to Archbishop Launay Saturné of Cap-Haïtien. April 28, a group of heavily armed bandits kidnapped several people, including Father Whatner Aupont, priest of St Joseph the Worker’s church at Grand’ Ravine in the Diocese [...]
Shagufta and Shafqat Emmanuel, a Catholic couple who lived in Mian Channu, a small town 250 km south of Lahore, Pakistan, were arrested on false charges of blasphemy in July 2013. After eight years in the death row, separated from each other and their four children, they were finally released [...]
There are 110 priests actively working in the Diocese of Jagdalpur in the state of Chhattisgarh, central-eastern India. Their work is hard and demands great self-sacrifice, for their ministry is in remote and underdeveloped regions and involves travelling long and difficult journeys. The diocese covers an area of around 15,000 [...]
More than 200 displaced women and children in Ukraine will continue to receive food and shelter – thanks to fresh support from Aid to the Church in Need. Ivano-Frankivsk Archdiocese, western Ukraine – which has been looking after displaced families since the start of the war – turned to Aid [...]
Mgr Pavlo Honcharuk, Bishop of Kharkiv-Zaporizhzhya, Ukraine gave an update to Aid to the Church in Need (ACN) about the situation in Ukraine’s second largest city. Two months after the start of the war, Russian attacks are focusing more on the east and south of Ukraine. Hence, life in Kharkiv, [...]
A 72-year-old religious sister has been praised for her “extraordinary courage” after she sought to disarm a man stabbing a priest at a Catholic church in Nice, south-eastern France. Sister Marie-Claude reportedly intervened after a 31-year-old man entered the Saint-Pierre d’Arene church before Sunday Mass on April 24 and repeatedly [...]
Monsignor Joseph Spiteri says that Lebanon is a unique country in the Middle East because it is based on a civil constitution, where freedom of conscience and expression are respected. The diplomatic representative of the Holy See thanks ACN for helping to preserve this balance through projects that encourage the [...]
A church in Iraq has marked their first Easter services since Islamic State militants desecrated the building almost eight years ago. St Kyriakos’s Chaldean Catholic Church, in Batnaya, saw militant extremists decapitate statues and smash the altar during attacks in 2014. Sacred images hung above the alter were used as [...]
