TO HELP THE CHURCH IN INDIA COPE WITH COVID-19, Aid to the Church in Need (ACN) has been supporting 27 projects  to support priests and sisters in India. These consist of subsistence aid and Mass stipends to help them to continue their work during the pandemic. In early May, India [...]

Eight years after two bishops were kidnapped by Islamist extremists in Syria, the country’s Christians renewed prayers for their return. Members of the country’s Churches gathered for a service in Aleppo’s Syriac Orthodox Cathedral yesterday (Thursday 22nd April), to mark the anniversary of the abduction of Syriac Orthodox Bishop Youhanna Ibrahim [...]

Hundreds lie dead in Ethiopia’s war-torn Tigray region according to a secret inside account, which described priests beaten up, churches ransacked, and “rampant” hunger and fear gripping the populace who have no medicine left. Speaking to Aid to the Church in Need (ACN), the priest, unnamed for security reasons, described [...]

One year ago the Requiem Mass for Michael Nnadi began with Psalm 50 (51). He had been abducted, along with three other seminarians, from the Good Shepherd Seminary in Kaduna, central-northern Nigeria. That was in January 2020, shortly after the seminarians had returned to the seminary after celebrating Christmas with [...]

Following the abduction of the priests and religious in Haiti on Sunday, other Catholic clergy and religious are now fearful of becoming victims themselves. This was the comment made on Monday by Catholic Bishop Jean Désinord of the diocese of Hinche, some 70 miles (112 km) north of the capital [...]

The bishops of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) have condemned rebel violence in the east of the country, highlighting attempted Islamisation, the forced conversion of prisoners and the deaths of thousands – including children. In a statement received by Aid to the Church in Need (ACN), members of [...]

A Religious Sister in India was arrested after she was charged under provisions of a new law that criminalizes religious conversion. Sister Bhagya (who uses only her first name) of the Sisters of the Destitute congregation and principal of Sacred Heart Convent High School in Khajuraho in the Chhatarpur district, [...]

When Catholic Christians hear the words “India” and “missionaries”, the first thing that probably comes to mind are images of missionaries from Europe working on the subcontinent. But times have changed: the Church in India, which, according to tradition, was founded by Thomas the Apostle, has developed into a new [...]

“The report on religious freedom worldwide is important to remind us of the atrocities happening in many parts of our globe. And it has particular importance for those who suffer such violations.” This is the view expressed by Professor Heiner Bielefeldt, the former UN Special Rapporteur on Freedom of Religion [...]