Aid to the Church in Need (ACN) has approved additional relief projects in Syria and Lebanon to help the local Christian communities face increasingly difficult conditions in those countries. With Syria still locked in a decade-old civil war, and Lebanon struggling with an extreme financial, social, and political crisis, aggravated [...]
Girls and women from religious minorities continue to be victims of forced conversion and marriage in Pakistan, with a significant number of cases occurring every year. Now, with the support of Aid to the Church in Need (ACN), the National Catholic Commission for Justice and Peace (NCJP) in Lahore is [...]
Croatia’s President Zoran Milanović highlighted the situation of the Catholic minority in Bosnia and Herzegovina during a visit to the Vatican on Monday. The Holy See press office said on Nov. 15 that after meeting with Pope Francis, Milanović held discussions with Vatican Secretary of State Cardinal Pietro Parolin and “foreign minister” [...]
According to newly published data from the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, the number of hate crimes against Christians in Europe rose sharply in 2020. The OSCE data, published Nov. 16, documented 980 incidents against Christians, including arson attacks on Catholic churches, desecration and robbery of Eucharistic hosts, [...]
At the conclusion of the Angelus in St. Peter's Square on Sunday 7th November, Pope Francis prayed that "the peaceful path of dialogue may prevail" in the Horn of Africa region, especially Ethiopia. He also paid tribute to three new Blesseds in Spain. The Holy Father expressed his concern over [...]
Aid to the Church in Need (ACN) has received anonymous reports that terrorists in Burkina Faso have instigated a killing campaign against Christians. ACN was reliably informed that a group of 147 Christians – including children, elderly and eight pregnant women – fled from two villages, on the Niger border, [...]
Father George Mangalapilly, an Indian priest, was recently acquitted of an alleged crime of “forcible religious conversion.” On December 14, 2017, he was attacked, along with 32 seminarians, by a group of radical Hindu extremists while singing Christmas carols in the village of Bhumkahar, Jawahar Nagar in the state of Madhya [...]
Aid to the Church in Need (ACN) is increasingly concerned about the danger to priests, religious and lay missionaries in many parts of the world. So far in 2021, the media have reported that at least 17 have been murdered and 20 have been kidnapped. “Being a priest or religious [...]
Besides rising Islamic fundamentalism and intolerance, Christians in Pakistan have also had to deal with endemic intolerance and were disproportionately affected by the Covid-19 Pandemic. Christians in Pakistan are “the poorest of the poor” and many do not see any hope for their future in a country where discrimination is [...]
This month, red light will bathe hundreds of cathedrals, churches, monuments and public buildings around the world as part of an international campaign to raise awareness of the persecution of Christians and the need for religious freedom. The international Catholic charity Aid to the Church in Need (ACN) launched the [...]
