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 [...]
GERMANY First church centre for Middle East Christians inaugurated On Sunday, October 22, 2017, the Chaldean-Catholic community of Mar Shimon Bar Sabbai in Stuttgart celebrated the opening of the first centre of the Chaldean Catholic Church in Europe. The Stuttgart municipality is named after the 4th-century martyr bishop and [...]
FRANCE Court orders removal of cross from St John Paul II statue The Conseil d’Etat, France’s top administrative court, has ordered the removal of a cross from a statue of Pope Saint John Paul II in Ploërmel, a small city in Brittany. The court stated that the cross’ “presence [...]
“Christians in the Middle East feel abandoned and betrayed" – Patriarch Younan Christians in the Middle East feel abandoned by the international community. The West has so far failed to help them in an extremely difficult situation - and Islamic society makes them second-class citizens in their own homeland, [...]
Pope Francis says “To fight hunger and forced migration, end war and arms trade.” “Ensuring everyone’s right to food and nourishment is an imperative we cannot ignore. It is a right to which there are no exceptions!” tweeted Pope Francis @Pontifex Pope Francis issued a lengthy appeal to world leaders [...]
BRAZIL “Now and at the hour of our death” The month of November is devoted in particular to prayers for the deceased. What was supposed to be a work of mercy in the Amazonas region of Brazil became nothing more than a means of exploitation before the church took [...]
