Iraq is not the country it was in 2014, when the Islamic State group threatened Christians and other minorities as it sought to establish a caliphate.

Archbishop Bashar Matti Warda, the Chaldean archbishop of Erbil in northern Iraq, said in an interview that his country is much more stable than it was a dozen years ago and that Christians are free to practice their faith without fear.

But, he said, there is a long road to travel before Christians are truly on an equal footing with the rest of Iraqi society.

Archbishop Warda, who welcomed thousands of Christians to his diocese as they fled from Mosul and the Nineveh Plain in 2014, spoke recently with ACN on the matter of Christian persecution.

The archbishop said that many areas of the country enjoy greater security, and that nine villages that had been occupied by ISIS were now fully rebuilt, allowing 10,000 Christians to return home.

But Iraq’s economy is still “uncertain” and the nation is still plagued by corruption, he complained.

“Final stability is not there,” Archbishop Warda told Royal, president of the Faith & Reason Institute in Washington, D.C. “Many young people struggle to find jobs.”

That is a major factor in the perennial struggle to maintain a Christian presence in Iraq.

Although churches can celebrate liturgies and carry out many pastoral practices freely, Christians are not equal citizens under the law, the archbishop maintains.

According to ACN’s Religious Freedom in the World Report, under Iraq’s 2005 constitution, Islam is the official state religion and a “source of legislation.” Nothing may contradict Islam, the principles of democracy, or constitutionally recognized rights and freedoms. The governing document provides that the Islamic identity of most Iraqis and the religious rights of Christians, Yazidis, and Sabean-Mandeans are equally protected.

Still, the archbishop said, “being a minority you really need to struggle to get your rights. Everyone feels that we don’t have full rights as citizens. Christians wonder, ‘Who’s going to protect us?’”

He said that the attitude of non-Muslims not being considered full citizens is “the reality we’ve been living over the past 14 centuries.” Therefore, Christians come to regard the Church as “the most powerful voice to advocate for their rights.”

Spreading the Gospel

One particular problem with Christians living their faith in Iraq is in sharing that faith. The archbishop said that it’s “dangerous” for Muslims to convert to Christianity.

“The only thing we can do for inquirers is to inform them,” he said. “We do get a good number of inquiries. Our Lady is quite a figure: she is adored by Muslims. You see Muslims praying to Our Lady in our churches. Sometimes a whole family comes to inquire, and people will say, ‘I’ve seen our Lady in my dreams.’ Whenever we tell them ‘This will put you in danger; we can’t really continue,’ they say, ‘Who are you to prevent me from [believing in] Christ?’”

“At the end of the day, I would say, ‘I did not go and preach to them, but it’s my responsibility to share [the Gospel] with them.’”

One answer to the dilemma is to strive to maintain the Church’s longstanding reputation as a reliable provider of education, healthcare and other services, he said. “We were always leaders in education, in healthcare. It’s through those social services that we give with love and compassion, and we can make an impact.”

Archbishop Warda has established the Catholic University in Erbil, Mar Qardakh School, and Maryamana Hospital. ACN has been a major supporter of the university and continues to provide scholarships for students attending the institution.

“Today we have more than 70 Muslim students,” the archbishop reported. “Families trust us. We are serious about trying to provide a quality education.”

The archbishop acknowledged ACN’s help in rebuilding homes post-ISIS and in establishing the Catholic University in Erbil. But he suggested that the “biggest contribution” the papal foundation has made to Iraq is a matter of information.

Said the archbishop, “ACN helped people to not to forget the persecuted Christians, not just in Iraq but around the world.”

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A historic church in Meza, in the region of Cabo Delgado, northern Mozambique, was reduced to rubble during an attack by jihadist insurgents, on 30 April. 

According to information sent by sources on the ground to Aid to the Church in Need (ACN), the attack took place at around 16:00, as armed militants entered the parish of St Louis de Montfort in Minhoene and began to destroy everything. The church, the offices and the missionaries’ residence were set ablaze, and the kindergarten was vandalised. 

“It was a scene of terror. Homes, infrastructure, all destroyed, and the historic parish reduced to rubble. Civilians were captured and forced to watch and listen to speeches of hatred,” wrote the Bishop of Pemba, António Juliasse, in a message to ACN.  

The parish of St Louis de Montfort was founded in 1946 and was an important landmark for the Catholic presence in northern Mozambique, which is majority Muslim. 

The community is currently served by Cameroonian missionaries, who fortunately were not present when the terrorists arrived. 

“The missionaries are safe, but the community remains in shock even after the attackers left the scene at nightfall.”

Bishop António Juliasse says the local Christians need encouragement from the wider Church. “We ask for attention and solidarity for the victims of Meza. For nine years, we have watched the insurgents burn chapels and churches in the Diocese of Pemba. But the faith of God’s people will never burn, everyday it is rebuilt!”

Archbishop Inácio Saure of Nampula, who is also the president of the Mozambican Bishops’ Conference, told ACN that the attacks on Christians and on Christian places of worship “go completely against our culture of peaceful coexistence between people of different faiths and our experience of living in peace”.

“Let the destruction and the killing cease. Let the incitement of hatred against Christians cease, and may we not allow space for Islamophobia either, because the Muslims are not our enemies, they are our beloved brethren.”

Although the insurgency in Cabo Delgado initially focused mostly on military and state targets, over the past few years the terrorists, who claim allegiance to the Islamic State, have been targeting Christians specifically. 

Since November 2017, the conflict in Cabo Delgado province, Mozambique, has caused at least 6,300 deaths and displaced more than one million people, affecting populations of different religions and communities. Within this broader context of violence, at least 300 Catholics have been brutally killed in attacks specifically targeting Christians, according to António Juliasse, Bishop of Pemba, including catechists, pastoral agents, lay faithful and an Italian religious, Sister Maria de Coppi. A total of at least 118 churches and chapels have also been destroyed in the course of the insurgency, including this latest incident in Meza.  

ACN continues to support the Church in Mozambique in the midst of the crisis. Projects include humanitarian aid, psycho-social support and the rebuilding of infrastructure. The Vatican has also continued to show its proximity to the Catholics of Cabo Delgado, making constant calls for peace. In December 2025, Cardinal Pietro Parolin, Secretary of State of the Holy See, visited the region and heard first-hand testimonies from victims. 

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While speaking to representatives of Aid to the Church in Need (ACN), Ilona explained that she only first learned about Jesus while studying at university in Moscow. “We were studying J.S. Bach’s ‘Passion of St. Matthew’. To understand this music, you should know what the Crucifixion and the Resurrection are.”

Ilona remained detached from Christianity until she realised that her family’s connection to the Faith was closer than she thought. “When my grandmother died, a priest came to visit us, and when my whole family sang and prayed with him.” Ilona asked her family what language they were singing in, and she found out that the family were Chaldean Catholics, an ancient Semitic Christian people originating from the Middle East. 

There are not many Chaldeans in the world. “Maybe even less than a million,” believes Father Benny Beth Yadgar, the pastor of the Assyrian – Chaldean Catholic Mission in Georgia. Facing persecution on account of their Christian faith in their homeland in Iraq, Iran, Syria and Turkey, many Chaldeans sought sanctuary in Georgia in the 19th and early 20th century, with thousands remaining there to this day. 

Father Benny, too, had to flee his homeland of Iran to avoid being drafted to fight in the Iran-Iraq War. He went to Italy and was later ordained a Chaldean Catholic priest in the US. “After I was ordained, I was told that there are Chaldeans in Georgia,” he explains, and this was how he arrived in Georgia in 1995, and he has been there ever since. 

The situation in Georgia was very different for the Chaldeans there than in other parts of the world. Some Chaldeans, like Ilona, had also grown-up detached from their cultural roots. For example, many Chaldeans are very proud of their Chaldean language, a dialect of Aramaic. 

Another Chaldean woman, Yulia Abramova, tells ACN that Chaldean children in school and university are proud to tell other students: “You know, we read in the language of Jesus Christ himself.” Despite this, Ilona had never learned any Aramaic growing up. 

When Father Benny arrived in Georgia, he realised that the Chaldeans in the country needed somewhere to meet and gather as a focal point of their community. “So, I decided we have to build a church for them,” explains the priest. 

Father Benny faced some challenges in constructing a new Chaldean church in Tbilisi. The majority Orthodox Church in Georgia is not very accommodating of the Catholic minority. “Up to this day when our children want to marry an Orthodox person, they have to be baptized again. That is why the Orthodox Church didn’t want us to build a church,” says Father Benny. For this reason, Father Benny said that he was building a cultural centre. When he was asked why he had built a church instead of a cultural centre, he said: “Christianity is our culture. Beyond Christianity we have no other culture.”

Indeed, the church’s centre does include many classrooms and offices. Yulia, for example, teaches Aramaic to the children at the church and has been involved in many different projects such as a sewing project to train young women to find jobs. Ilona too became the leader of the choir. Through all this Ilona become more connected to her faith and cultural background. The church and centre were even visited by Pope Francis during his trip to Georgia in 2016. 

Tbilisi is the major centre of Chaldeans in Georgia, but there are Chaldeans living elsewhere in the country. This is the case with Gardabani, approximately 40 km from Tbilisi, with around 400 Chaldean Catholics living in the city. Many are descended from Chaldeans who fled persecution in Turkey and settled in Azerbaijan. In the 1930s, they were deported to Siberia, but were allowed to return home after Stalin’s death. “But they wanted a Christian land and therefore they were evicted to this area in Georgia.” The land in the area around Gardabani was very bad and the Chaldeans struggled to surviving. “How many died to save their faith?” ponders Father Benny. “They are like martyrs.”

The living conditions for the Chaldeans in Gardabani are still very difficult. “Often electricity is cut off. All live together in one room in shabby or ruined houses. Poorest among the poor,” Father Benny tells ACN. In this context, it was impossible for many to travel to the closest Chaldean church in Tbilisi. Mass had been celebrated instead in a parishioner’s home in Gardabani.

Given these conditions, Father Benny sought as well to build an Assyrian – Chaldean Religious – Cultural Centre, including a church, in Gardabani. With the support of ACN, the centre was consecrated and opened on 10 July 2023. 

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Militant Fulani herdsmen killed Christian farmer Agber Targba while he was out in his field in Gwer West Local Government Area looking for vegetables for his family to eat at a time of an extreme food shortage.

Local priest Father Remigius Ihyula sent a report to Aid to the Church in Need (ACN), which stated that “heavily armed” extremists “ambushed” Mr Targba and “opened fire on him” as he attempted “to seek safety”, killing him “on the spot”.

Speaking with ACN after the attack last Monday (5th August), Father Ihyula said that terrorists “have occupied most of the villages” in the area where the attack occurred, making it exceedingly dangerous for locals to work on their farms.

He added that Christian farming communities “are living in fear, not knowing when another person will get attacked” because “a full month hardly ever passes without an attack”.

He said that “most villagers” have fled to safer areas and have to travel “miles to access the farms” where they had once lived.

Father Ihyula told ACN that the goal of the militant herdsmen is to “suffocate people through hunger”, making it difficult for them to collect their food products – so “when it is time to harvest, beginning in August, September and through December, more attacks are coming”.

He added that it was time for the international community to “break” with “political correctness” – because “as long as we keep saying that [the attacks] are about climate change”, the religious dimension of the atrocities “will remain hidden” and more people will suffer.

Father Ihyula highlighted that, as a priest, he is “the last hope” of his people, and his “presence alone gives many of them confidence and the reassurance that they are not suffering alone”.

He went on to say that the Nigerian government has done “nothing concrete to address the situation” – and expressed his gratitude to ACN for providing much-needed help for suffering Christian communities.

ACN’s support in the region has included basic necessities – food, clothing and shelter – and pastoral care.

Extremists killed more than 400 people and injured, raped or kidnapped almost 100 more in Benue State in 2023.

Fulani militants slaughtered around 300 people during targeted attacks on Christian villages in neighbouring Plateau State on Christmas Eve 2023.

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For decades, Burundi – a small African country with a population of around 13 million – has been shaken by a security crisis. In 2023, the UN Human Rights Committee expressed concern “about allegations of forced disappearances and killings of political activists and journalists carried out by the security forces and pro-government groups” in Burundi.

These human rights violations usually take place away from the public eye. Recently, however, Burundi’s Catholic bishops have also clearly denounced the abuses in the country in a public “message of peace” which has made available to Aid to the Church in Need (ACN): “The realisation that there are people in our country who are cruelly murdered or abducted and disappear for political reasons or other macabre interests makes one shudder,” they write. “If a person is arrested by the competent authorities, justice must be administered in accordance with the law; the person must be held in a place that is known and accessible to family members.”

Climate of mistrust

The bishops also warn against a culture of impunity for wrongdoing: “If impunity becomes entrenched in society, people lose confidence in the justice system, thus leading to the danger that they become discouraged, take the law into their own hands, and commit crimes.”

With an “impassioned appeal” to those who “harbour the desire to shed the blood of peaceful citizens in order to give voice to their ideology or to seek political power”, they call on them to “sheathe their swords again and set about building the nation by adopting ways that respect the dignity of human beings and favour dialogue and consultation”.

“Burundi has a very painful history, characterised by massacres, murders, social conflicts and violence,”says Maxime François-Marsal, ACN’s project manager for the French-speaking countries in Central Africa, who visited the country in 2023. “There is a climate of mistrust everywhere in the country, even among friends and family.” This is why it is so important to promote a culture of dialogue and peace.

To support the education and training of those who will help to shape the life of the Church and the development of the country in the future, ACN has contributed to more than 200 projects in Burundi over the past ten years, focusing on the training of priests, catechists, and religious sisters, and support for various pastoral activities. “Our work seeks to spread the Gospel message in the hearts of the people so that they can resist the temptation of violence. Let us pray that all those in positions of responsibility in the country will listen to the voice of their conscience, that the message of the Gospel will be heard, and that the people in Burundi, who so much long for peace, will be able to live in safety once again.”

Burundi has regularly been the scene of bloody conflicts since the end of colonial rule in 1962. In 2015, however, the situation in the country came to a head when the then president, Pierre Nkurunziza, announced his intention to run for a third term in office. This plan, which violated the constitution, led to protests throughout the country. Since then, the authorities have taken harsh measures against civil society and the media, particularly when the poor conditions in the country are criticised.

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“This period of persecution is a time of penitence; in Nicaragua we are living in terror, fear and anguish. Psychologists here say the whole population is suffering from the same”, says Maria, a Nicaraguan lay woman, whose name has been changed for fear of reprisals, speaking to international foundation Aid to the Church in Need (ACN).

As the Government intensifies its efforts to silence the Church in Nicaragua “demonstrations of popular piety such as the Way of Cross or processions have been forbidden and can no longer go from parishes out into the streets, as has always happened before. Priests are being persecuted, people show up for Mass and record their sermons; nobody can publicly ask for the release of Bishop Rolando Álvarez”, said Maria. “I am a member of a weekly prayer group and recently we have noticed that we are being watched by a member of a paramilitary group who is clearly armed with a pistol underneath his shirt”.

Nicaragua has a very strong culture of popular religion. Public processions through urban neighbourhoods and in the countryside have been a way of the faithful strengthening and living out their faith ever since Christianity first reached this Central American State; yet for the first time in the country’s history, the Government has limited these demonstrations of faith in a way that did not even happen during the worst times of the dictatorship in the 80s. According to other local sources contacted by ACN, which for safety reasons will also remain anonymous, police officers have been knocking on parish doors to personally inform people about the prohibition, which is yet another measure by the Government aimed at disheartening the faithful.

The response of the Nicaraguan faithful during this ‘Way of the Cross’ the country is currently experiencing has been to find personal forms of uniting themselves to the cross. “Nonetheless, we continue to search for ways of mortification, the sacrament of confession, praying the Way of the Cross in our homes, in the parishes, going to Mass on Sunday… We also gather for prayer over Zoom and WhatsApp, or watch sermons on YouTube or Facebook; as a people, we continue to have faith in our God”, says Maria.

Fearing accusations of civil disobedience, many priests have limited the scope of their activities and their sermons. The bishops have been publicly accused by the president of promoting death in Nicaragua, been called sons of the devil and, in recent days, on national radio, he labelled Bishop Rolando Álvarez, who was sentenced to 26 years in prison for refusing to abandon the country, “arrogant” and an “idiot”.

The situation in the dioceses of Matagalpa and Estelí, both of which were under the care of Bishop Álvarez and are being closely watched, is very difficult; but all over the country Catholics live in fear that their priests and bishops might be arrested and deported, according to reports gathered by ACN.

Besides the diocesan clergy, members of religious orders are also suffering from the consequences of the Government’s policy to silence the Church. After the Missionaries of Charity, founded by Mother Teresa of Calcutta, were expelled from the country, other female religious orders such as the Trappists or a group of religious sisters from Puerto Rico have decided to leave Nicaragua, due to the pressure from the State. According to ACN sources, in many cases, the government has been blocking religious orders from accepting donations to carry out their charitable work and care for the most needy, as well as denying residence permits or revoking the Nicaraguan citizenship of missionaries who had already obtained it.

Nicaraguan Catholics are experiencing the situation with sadness, pain and a feeling of impotence. Yet, despite all the difficulties, churches, and particularly chapels with perpetual adoration, continue to be visited by the faithful. “Despite all the harassment in our parishes, our devotion remains very strong. Nicaraguans have three great loves: Jesus in the Eucharist, Our Lady of the Immaculate Conception and our shepherds (the Holy Father, the bishops and the priests). Our prayers are with them”, Maria tells ACN.

“We are not paralysed by terror. We are confident that the cries of the people will be heard by God. As long as we can get on our knees and raise our hands in prayer to God, to whom all things are possible, we shall not be paralysed by fear”, says this young Nicaraguan Catholic.

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It is a beautiful day in Baghdeda, and families are streaming into the church of St. Behnam and Sarah. The interior of the church is pristine and the pews are full of people who have come to attend a Syriac Catholic liturgy.

The surrounding tranquillity makes it difficult to imagine that only eight years agoBaghdeda, or Qaraqosh, as it is known in Arabic, was fully occupied by Islamic State terrorists who destroyed ancient and priceless Christian heritage and burned and gutted St. Behnam’s.

“The first time I visited the city, four days after its liberation, in 2016, we saw absolute devastation, the church burned, the bell tower knocked over. My feeling was of great sadness. This parish was very active before ISIS. However, the church still stands, we were able to restore it”, says Father George Jahola, a native of Baghdeda, as he points to some of the signs of destruction that are still visible, such as the felled bell tower.

Over the past years the Church has been undergoing restoration. The interior was recently completed, and now, with the financial help of  Aid to the Church in Need (ACN), work has finally begun on the exterior as well.

However, the people of Qaraqosh did not wait for the restoration to begin praying in this church as they returned from exile in Kurdistan. “The community was thrilled to be able to return to pray in this parish. We wanted to strengthen and encourage this faith, and explain that the Church is more than buildings, it is the souls of the people who live in the parish. After two years we decided it was time to restore the church, to give the people hope”, says Father George.

A symbol and a witness

Hope is necessary, even now after the liberation of the city, when many are still tempted to seek out safer lands in the west. “The restoration of this church is a symbol of resistance, to remain in this land, to bear witness. Pope Francis visited us just over a year ago, and he asked us to bear witness in this land”, recalls the priest.

Local parish priest Father Boutros Sheeto confirms that the restoration of the church has become a visible sign of the larger struggle to keep the Christian faith alive in Iraq. “Having the church restored gives the community psychological and moral strength. Without this reconstructionmany families today would be thinking about emigrating.”

The fact that many Christians decided to remain does not mean they do not fear the return of persecution. Rather, many see it as part of their faith. “Since its inception to this day, the Church has been persecuted. A Church that is not persecuted is a Church that does not carry Christ, because Jesus was crucified and suffered during his life and his mission. If Jesus suffered, died, was buried and rose, we have to suffer with Jesus and suffer with the Church so that we can live the Resurrection and be witnesses to the gospel of joy and hope in the world”, adds Father Boutros.

Rebuilding lives

This day, however – as ancient Syriac hymns ring out once more in the beautifully restored church of St. Benham and St. Sarah, and volunteers hand out food and drinks to parishioners as they come outside to socialise – is one of celebration and gratitude, to God, and to those who made the restoration possible.

“We thank Aid to the Church in Need for its efforts to rebuild the church. We thank it with all our heart, and all benefactors for their support”, says Semoon Beto Shabo, the church’s caretaker.

ACN has been very active in assisting in the restoration of Christian heritage and infrastructure in Iraq, especially since the terrible persecutions at the hands of ISIS, which forced hundreds of thousands to flee to Kurdistan. After focusing on the rebuilding of houses in Christian towns and villages, the Catholic charity has been aiding in the restoration and construction of schools, churches and other crucial institutions to help maintain a Christian presence in the region.

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Two Catholic nuns are still reeling from being grabbed by a Hindu mob at a bus stop and marched to a police station in the Mau district of northern India’s Uttar Pradesh State.

Sister Gracy Monteiro, a member of the Ursuline Franciscan congregation, had reached a bus stand with her companion Sister Roshi Minj, who was going to visit her ailing father in the eastern Indian state of Jharkhand, when the incident occurred.

“As I dropped off Sister Minj and got back into our jeep, a group of Hindu men started to abuse the driver and tried to pull him out of his seat,” Sister Monteiro told ACN, adding “I am still in shock.” “I stepped in to help the driver and asked the men what they wanted and why they were harassing us. They then shouted at us, accusing us of illegally converting a Hindu to Christianity,” she said.

“Soon they spotted Sister Minj, who was also forcibly taken from the bus stop and they marched us to the nearby police station.” As they were taken to the police station, the mob was chanting anti-Christian slogans.

The nuns were then forced to remain at the police station for more than six hours, and were only released in the evening, following intervention from higher officials.

According to the nuns, they were not harassed by the police officers, but were apparently made to wait because of the threat from the Hindu mob that kept vigil outside, demanding action against them for alleged illegal religious conversion.

Uttar Pradesh, the most populous state in India, banned religious conversion under what are labeled false premises through an ordinance in November 2020, which was passed into law by the State Assembly in February this year. The law stipulates up to 10 years in jail for religious conversion through allurement, force, coercion, and fraud, among other illegal means. Increasingly, however, various forms of Christian pastoral and charitable works are seen as illegal allurement to convert.

Uttar Pradesh is the latest of eight states in India where such laws exist to regulate religious conversion. Church leaders are questioning their legality, charging that the laws violate the Indian Constitution, which allows citizens to follow the religion of their choice and the freedom to propagate it.

“We have not done anything wrong or illegal, yet in full public view we were forcefully taken to police station. It is quite shocking, and we never imagined such a situation in our lives,” said Sister Monteiro, who has been a nun for 21 years and currently serves as principal of a Church-run secondary school.

“No one would expect such treatment in public from men who surrounded us as if we were anti-social elements,” Sister Minj told ACN.

“When they forced me to accompany them, I thought something must have happened to Sister Monteiro but, as I reached her, I found they were shouting against Christians and accusing us of religious conversion.”

“One thing is certain, the life of Christian missionaries, especially nuns with their religious habits, will not be the same in Uttar Pradesh,” said Sister Minj, who is a trained nurse.

Uttar Pradesh is currently ruled by Hindu ascetic Yogi Adityanath, a member of the Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). Ever since Adityanath took over, in March 2017, Uttar Pradesh has recorded 384 incidents of attacks on minority Christians. Muslims face similar attacks from influential radical Hindu groups that have the tacit support of government agencies.

“I meet several patients every day without any hesitation, but things have changed a lot since this incident,” said Sister Minj, adding that “we will continue our mission, in spite of all the challenges and persecutions.”

On the same day the nuns were detained, police also arrested seven Protestants, including three women, labeling their prayer meeting a ceremony for illegal religious conversions. It is likely that the Hindu mob initially suspected that the nuns were dropping people off at the meeting.

Christians make up just 0.18 percent of Uttar Pradesh state’s population of 200 million, but extremist Hindu groups continue to attack the faithful over alleged cases of religious conversion, often disrupting prayer meetings and other activities.

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ACN is supporting a women’s advancement programme to empower those from the lowest classes of society who are denied rights, goods and services – and are in danger of abduction followed by forced marriage and conversion and sexual abuse.

The project activities support vulnerable women and girls with counselling and group sessions, as well as basic education for those from deprived areas.

One participant said the programme had helped her to stand strong as they “live in a state of anxiety and constant pressure…

“If we do try to defend our rights, we will be accused of blasphemy or some other charge, based on false accusations, as has already occurred in the past.”

The 20-year-old woman said: “Thanks to my involvement in the women’s advancement programme sponsored by ACN International, I have found myself strengthened in my faith.

“They are helping us to be more aware of our responsibilities and our rights.

“They are encouraging us to stand strong and fight against discrimination and forced conversion, harassment and violence and to defend our equal rights.”

Many of Pakistan’s Christians have menial jobs including factory workers, day labourers, domestic staff, sewer workers and toilet cleaners – so many of the young women taking part in the programme are suburban domestic workers or students from poor families.

One young participant in the programme, whose father is a street cleaner, described the discrimination and abuse she faced from students and staff when she started further education.

The 17-year-old said: “When I went to college I suffered many acts of discrimination on the part of my lecturers and fellow students, to the extent that I couldn’t concentrate on my studies.”

Her family’s income is just 10,000 Rupees (€110) a month.

A friend, in whom she confided, encouraged her to get involved in the ACN-backed programme.

She said: “I listened to the counselling sessions and they gave me new hope to be able to cope with my circumstances.

“I promised myself that I wouldn’t give them another opportunity to destroy my future.

“I’m going to study hard and show people that Our Lord is always with us, that he gives us strength, and guides and protects us.”

According to ACN’s 2021 Religious Freedom in the World report, Pakistan was one of the countries where there are severe violations of religious liberty.

Christians make up around two percent of the country’s population of about 207 million inhabitants.

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“The most important thing now is the complete healing of Father Christian, both physically and spiritually. He is very serene, he is very peaceful”, explained Father Louis Okot, provincial of the Comboni in South Sudan, to the international charity Aid to the Church in Need. One day after the attack on Christian Carlassare (on April 25^th), a Comboni missionary of Italian origin, who had been in the African country since 2008 and had recently been elected bishop of the diocese of Rumbek in South Sudan, Father Okot added: “It is not yet known what the motive was, but he has already publicly forgiven those who shot him”.

The attack was a shock for father Okot and the entire community: “We did not expect in any way that Bishop Carlassare would suffer something like this. The reception of him in the diocese a few days before was extremely good, full of hope. On Saturday we spoke on the phone because we were coordinating preparations for the episcopal ordination, which had been scheduled for Pentecost. How we were going to organize the ceremony, the soundsystem, the transfer of guests … “

The provincial of the Comboni Missionaries speaks of “an isolated incident.” “I don’t think it has anything to do with intercommunity violence between traditionally divided peoples. Often grievances occur between communities, and revenge is sought. The bishop-elect does not belong to any of these groups. He is a man of God.” But Okot remembers that “the police are investigating and looking for more information. It will be extremely important to know the cause of the assailants”.

The signing of the Revitalized Agreement on the Resolution of the Conflict in South Sudan (R-ARCSS) in September 2018 restored some stability to the country and achieved a notable decrease in political violence between the two confronted leaders and between their respective Dinka and Nuer tribes. However, South Sudan continues to face serious problems of insecurity, “several bishops in the country have received threats, but not Bishop Carlassare”, confirms the South Sudanese priest.

Speaking of the general situation in the country, Father Louis Okot describes the February 2020 pact for the formation of a government of national unity “as a positive step, as politics now follow a diplomatic path.” Although this means that “not everyone is happy with the formation of the new unity government. There are people who struggle with some appointments”.

But despite the progress, “there seems to be very little interest in bringing the country to true unity. Efforts are slow and weak, there is no real commitment. Nobody wants to lose their privileges. That is why we have so many problems between antagonistic communities, especially due to the lack of resources and access to pastures, these conflicts reappear over and over again. A few weeks ago, 23 people were killed in Lagos State. That is the area that suffers the most from this conflict now. “

Regarding the future of Fr. Christian, who was transferred on Monday 26 April to Nairobi (Kenya), and regarding the question of his return to Rumbek, the provincial of the Comboni Missionaries insists that “the most important thing now is that the doctors restore his full health”. But he adds: “Father Christian loves this country and the diocese that has been entrusted to him. We have worked very closely for many years and I know that he is a missionary who lives deeply the charism of the Comboni Missionaries, that is none other than being on the front line, in the line of fire as they say, that is part of our dedication”.

“None of us can say that something like this could not happen to him. The situation of insecurity is general. Our policy is not to run away or back down from danger. Many of the Comboni men and women religious live in situations of war, violence and uncertainty in different countries of the world. Willing to give their lives for those most in need, to serve those most in need even in dangerous situations, they do it for the love of God. “

ACN has been supporting the Diocese of Rumbek for the past 25 years. The charity supported more than 100 projects, including the pastoral work of the Church, Mass stipends for the clergy, transportation, and religious literature. ACN has helped to create new infrastructure, such as chapels and convents. Likewise, to alleviate times of famine that repeatedly affect the diocese, the foundation has provided emergency aid.

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