NIGERIA Supporting widows and orphans of Boko Haram victims   Vital assistance from a leading Catholic charity is to be provided for Nigerian widows and orphans who lost loved ones in violence perpetrated by Islamist militants Boko Haram. Aid to the Church in Need has agreed a £63,000 (€70,000) package [...]

BANGLADESH - Priests in Mymensingh can now reach the scattered faithful on new motorcycles   Catholics make up only a tiny minority in Bangladesh, are currently in which some 90% of its over 144 million strong population are Muslims. The Catholic Church is relatively young in this particular country of Southeast [...]

YEMEN - Kidnapped Indian priest Fr Tom is still alive   Abdulmalik Abduljalil Al-Mekhlafi, Yemen's minister for foreign affairs, told Indian officials during a recent visit to New Delhi that Fr Tom is still alive. The official statement said Al-Mekhlafi, who is also the deputy prime minister, informed the government that [...]

“We must evangelise the culture” – Interview with Archbishop Michael Didi   Archbishop Michael Didi Adgum Mangoria has been in charge of the archdiocese of Khartoum since November 2016. The international pontifical foundation Aid to the Church in Need visited recently Sudan. During the trip, ACN spoke to the Archbishop [...]

IRAQ - Seminarian who once saved the Eucharist from IS returns as a priest   Martin Baani was just 24 years old when he risked his life as a seminarian to rescue the Blessed Sacrament from the imminent invasion of Islamic State terrorists in his hometown.Now, he is returning to his [...]

SYRIA - “Rowing Against the Current in Damascus” Maronite Archbishop Samir Nassar Describes the Suffering of Syrians In November 2016, Pope Francis made the unusual move of elevating Archbishop Mario Zenari, papal nuncio in Syria, to the College of Cardinals. With this appointment, the Pope acknowledged and honoured Cardinal Zenari’s [...]

IRAQ - Eyewitness report from Monsignor Petros Mouche, Archbishop of Mosul   Now that Mosul has been liberated, will the Christians be able to return to their homes soon? According to Mgr. Petros Mouche, Syriac Catholic archbishop of the second largest city in Iraq, it is too early for this, but [...]

We weep for our abandoned children!   Jürgen Liminski interviews Mons. Cyr-Nestor YAPAUPA, Bishop of the Diocese of Alindao in the Central African Republic, for Aid to the Church in Need International (ACN) about the new clashes between factions of the Seleka and the Anti-balaka still present in the region. [...]

HAITI - Without the Church, many villages have no hope   Marco Mencaglia, the head of the Haitian section of the pontifical foundation Aid to the Church in Need, travelled to the country on a visit. His goal: to take stock of the aid the charity has granted over the [...]

FRANCE - Monument to be unveiled in memory of martyr Fr Hamel   A year after French priest Jacques Hamel was murdered, he is to be remembered at a Mass in the church of Saint Stephen in Sainte-Etienne-du-Rouvray, on the outskirts of the city of Rouen, some 80 kilometres north-west of Paris. The [...]