September marks the resumption of school for most of the northern hemisphere, but in many regions, including the Middle East, the return to classes is marked by increasing difficulties.

The presence of Christian institutions, especially schools, is crucial to keeping Christian communities stable in a Middle East where uncertainty and conflict continue to prevail. Pontifical foundation Aid to the Church in Need (ACN) has been helping schools across the Middle East afloat during these years of crisis.

In the Holy Land, Syria and Lebanon, ACN is helping over 15 thousand students to remain in over 200 different Christian schools. At the same time, almost 2500 teachers are benefitting from financial aid from the foundation.

The vast majority of these schools serve not only Christians but also members of other religions, and are sometimes the only educational space which actively promotes coexistence and tolerance, thereby providing a fundamental service to the entire society. 

Stationary/ Booklets for 28,000 students from assisted schools executed by the Maronite Sisters of the Holy Family (Academic year 2025/ 2026)

Five years of support for Lebanese schools

Lebanon is the country which receives most support for schools from ACN. In 2021 the small country was going through a terrible financial crisis, following the collapse of the banking system. Many families lost their savings, and were no longer able to afford to pay tuition fees for their children. 

To help prevent the collapse of the whole education system, Aid to the Church in Need (ACN) stepped in to help pay tuition fees for close to 13,500 students and salaries for over 1000 teachers across around 170 schools.

At the time Marielle Boutros, who coordinates ACN projects in Lebanon, already feared the situation could get worse, but was far from imagining it could get as bad as it did. 

“The situation five years ago was really very bad, and we had little hope for the future. If you’d asked us, we’d say we didn’t know how things might be in a further five years. But we didn’t imagine that it would go this far”, she explains. 

In that time Lebanon suffered two wars, with Israel launching air strikes in several parts of the country and even invading the south. 

“In 2024 we had displacement, and in the south of Lebanon people were not able to pay tuition fees, many of them lost access to their agriculturchural fields. But the 2026 war has been worse, because some damages are irreparable. It’s not that people don’t have access to their lands, it’s that there is nothing to go back to.” 

Naturally, the situation has affected the schools as well. “Some have continued to teach online, and some have reopened since the ceasefire. But the ones in more dangerous areas don’t risk it, because there are still airstrikes in the south. And then there are some schools that don’t have any students, because they have all left and are scattered over the country.” 

In this context, ACN’s support for schools is more important than ever. “We are still in a state of war, and nobody knows what is going to happen. If you are a parent, even in a safer area, you are not going to spend the little you have on tuition fees when you can’t be sure if you will have the money to feed your family.”

“And then we have the schools in the affected areas. The teachers have to be paid, in order to maintain their link to the school and avoid losing them, because we don’t have a pool of talented teachers as we did before, due to emigration,” Marielle Boutros adds. 

Marielle Boutros

Boutros also oversees ACN projects in Syria, where, she says, the situation remains “stable”, but not in a good way. “The general feeling in Syria is of uncertainty, and uncertainty has become the new stability. It hasn’t turned into positive things, or negative things yet.”

“But the economic situation is very bad, and it is important that we understand that Syria is not out of the crisis yet,” Marielle Boutros explains.

State pressure

The situation for schools in the Holy Land is also particularly sensitive at the moment. Christian schools in East Jerusalem, for example, have come under great pressure from the Israeli Government. In January the Government passed a law banning new teachers with diplomas from West Bank universities from teaching in schools in Israel. 

More recently dozens of teachers who live in the West Bank did not have their permits to enter Israel renewed. Christian schools in Israel declared a strike, leading the Government to relent and to renew the permits, although in some cases for only a few weeks.

The Christian churches in the Holy Land have a strong network of schools, which often serve Muslim students as well. The Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem, for example, runs 43 schools, 35 kindergartens, 12 Schools in Palestine, 24 in Jordan and 6 in Israel, which serve around 20 thousand students, including 6000 in the West Bank and Gaza. ACN support goes especially to the poorest members of the Christian community, to allow them to have access to an education of excellence that also helps them to maintain their religious values. 

The post Education key to Christian survival in the Middle East appeared first on Aid to the Church in Need (Malta).

Fr Pier Luigi Maccalli was working as a missionary in Boamanga, Niger, when he was kidnapped by armed men, on 17 September, 2018, and transported across the border into Mali. He soon realised these were not common criminals, but Islamist fundamentalists. That was the beginning of an ordeal that would change his life.

In this interview with Aid to the Church in Need (ACN) he opens up about the suffering experienced over the next 750 days, until he was released. 

You wrote a book called “I Choose Not to Hate”, in which you call for an end to war and violence. Was this book inspired by your experience in captivity?

I felt the need to write this book to respond to the countless images and words on television and in the media praising rearmament and war. I saw the true face of war up close; I was kept chained as a hostage and prisoner for more than two years and, precisely because I experienced such inhumanity first-hand, I felt compelled to make my voice heard. Peace is possible, but not in the way the world offers it, with bombs and massacres of the innocent. There is an alternative to war. This book describes the two banks of the river of peace, which are two negatives: no to violence and no to killing. From these two banks, we can feed the river of peace with a variety of creative actions and words, in harmony with goodness, non-violence and life, but never death.

On 17 September, it will be eight years since you were kidnapped. What memories do you hold of that day? What shocked you the most when you realised that you had indeed been abducted and that you would likely spend a long period in captivity, as turned out to be the case?

When I realized that my kidnappers were not common criminals, as I initially thought, but jihadists, it was like a punch in the gut. A heavy stone fell on me and crushed me. The weight was too much, and I cried tears of despair. I remember that every day we would set off on a motorbike, getting further away from the places I knew, and my anguish grew as I realised it would become increasingly difficult to escape.

Father Pier Luigi Maccalli shows remainings from his hostage: a cross, a rosary and a part of a chain. Father Maccalli was guest during red week of ACN Germany. He was kidnapped for two years by Islamist terrorists in Subsahran Africa.

How did this experience change you? Is there a Fr Maccalli before and after the experience of captivity?

This ordeal changed my perspective on life, mission, and God. Through this experience, I learned to know myself better and to understand my own fragilities; I understood just how challenging and decisive Jesus’ commandment to love our enemies really is. I confess that these words challenged me during my imprisonment, and I asked myself: “How can I love these people who have taken away my freedom, chained me every day, and threatened me with death?”. 

It was only when I was able to say, alongside the man on the cross: “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do”, that I was able to fully understand the new logic of the Beatitudes. 

My book focuses on the peace that emerges from the logic of Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount.

Did you ever feel hatred within you?

No! Hatred is a dead end. I felt deep pity for my captors. They are young men brainwashed by propaganda videos and plagued by so much illiteracy. It made me sad to see that those young people, for whose better future I had given my life, were wasting theirs for an ideal of death and violence. I felt a sense of defeat as a missionary. And I vented my anger at God; I felt like Job arguing with God.

Did you ever think you might die?

I was even explicitly threatened. It was 23 May – I remember it well – and a jihadist told me: “At the first opportunity, I’m going to put a bullet in your forehead”. And he was not joking. 

But I told myself that even if he took my life abruptly, I could consider my missionary life complete. The year before the kidnapping, we had opened a new church in Boamanga and I ordered the seven spiritual and corporal works of mercy to be written on the seven doors leading into it; I told myself that this was my testament to the community. Anyone entering that church will remember that feeding the hungry, giving drink to the thirsty, visiting the sick and the imprisoned, clothing the naked and the vulnerable… is the path to entering the Kingdom: at the end of life, we will be judged by love.

What was it like to pray while in captivity, surrounded by Islamic terrorists? Was prayer also a form of resistance?

Rather than resistance, it was a dedication to a kingdom of peace. I made a rosary out of cloth and that, together with spontaneous prayers, kept me connected to my family and to the communities for which I interceded. I learned to be a missionary with my heart, not with my feet. I prayed the prayer of the heart and walked with my heart along the paths I used to travel on foot or by car. Perhaps prayer was my way of existing every day. I discovered, in that captivity, that praying is to counter the solitude of feeling abandoned by God. It is crying out my desire to feel loved by a Father who is not indifferent to the cry of His children.

Photo: Father Pierluigi Maccalli during holy mass – before his abduction © Societé des Missions Africanes (SMA)There is more Islamic terrorism today than in September 2018, when you were kidnapped. Jihadist groups continue to threaten Mali and Niger but also Nigeria, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, and even Cabo Delgado, in Mozambique. What message do you have for these populations, especially the Christian communities that fall victim to attacks by these armed groups?

I would like to thank them for their testimony of faithfulness and presence in regions of insecurity. During my imprisonment, I remembered these words of Jesus: “Blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me. Rejoice and be glad, because great is your reward in heaven.” I admit that it was difficult for me to rejoice, but it comforted me to know that I was in communion with Jesus. I was on a mission because of Him. The insults were directed at me, but in reality, I was there because of Him; Jesus was the target. And I thought: these people believe that holy war (jihad) is meant to glorify God, but they do not realize that they are defying the God of Jesus. I could rest easy; the One who sent me was on the front line with me. The cause is His, just as the mission is God’s.

As you know, ACN’s mission includes supporting Christian communities that are victims of persecution and violence. During your captivity, ACN repeatedly appealed for your release and asked the world to pray for you. How do you view and follow the pontifical foundation’s work?

My thanks go to everyone who prayed for my release. I am convinced that my freedom is the result of the prayers of many: monasteries, parish communities, and many ordinary believers. The Vatican and its institutions closely followed my plight, which culminated in a special audience with Pope Francis on 9 November 2020. To all of them, my sincere thanks, and I renew my invitation to everyone to believe and hope, to pray and to work for peace.

The post “I cried tears of despair”, says priest who spent over two years in hands of jihadists appeared first on Aid to the Church in Need (Malta).

Pope Leo XIV will join hundreds of children in praying the Rosary for peace on 1 October at the Lourdes Grotto in the Vatican Gardens. The event will begin at 5:00 p.m., with the Pope joining the children later to pray the Rosary.

Between 700 and 1,000 children from schools and parishes in Rome are expected to attend. Together with the Holy Father, they will pray in spiritual union with children, families, schools and Christian communities around the world.

The gathering will mark the beginning of the worldwide week of prayer for the “One Million Children Praying the Rosary” initiative, promoted by the Pontifical Foundation

Aid to the Church in Need (ACN) for more than 20 years. This year, for the first time, the campaign will take place over an entire week, from 1 to 7 October, allowing dioceses, parishes, schools, communities and families on different continents to choose the day best suited to their pastoral circumstances, while remaining united in the same intention of prayer for peace and unity.

The week will culminate on 7 October, the Feast of Our Lady of the Rosary.

Children around the world united in prayer

While children in Rome pray with Pope Leo XIV, similar initiatives are already being prepared in many countries, from indigenous communities in the Bolivian Amazon to parishes in Sudan, Zimbabwe, Mozambique, Sierra Leone and many other places affected by war, poverty or instability.

In Sudan, where an ongoing war continues to cause immense suffering, Fr Franck Mandozi of the Pastoral Region of Kosti has confirmed that children from several parishes and schools will take part.

Thousands of kilometres away, in a Tsimané indigenous community in the Bolivian Amazon, Sister Patricia Alejandra Botello López says that children are already praying the Rosary in both T’siman and Spanish.

In Zimbabwe, St Christopher’s Parish in the Archdiocese of Bulawayo will gather children on Sunday, 4 October. In the weeks that follow, parish priest Fr Charles Mafurutu also intends to travel to remote communities and Mass centres scattered across the parish territory, some many kilometres away.

In Paraguay, Radio Pa’i Puku plans to promote the initiative through its broadcasts and to transmit live the Rosary prayed by children at the parish of San Eugenio de Mazenod, inviting families, schools, parishes and catechists to join in prayer.

A prayer for a wounded world

The 2026 campaign is inspired by the message of Fatima: “In the end, my Immaculate Heart will triumph.”

In this year’s invitation to participants, Cardinal Kurt Koch, President of ACN International and Prefect of the Dicastery for Promoting Christian Unity, recalls that the Immaculate Heart of Mary represents a life entirely open to the Holy Spirit and presents Mary as a model of faith, love and prayer.

The initiative takes on particular significance at a time when millions of people are facing war, violence, persecution, poverty and uncertainty.

In this context, the prayer of children is intended as a simple but universal sign of trust and hope: children of different languages, cultures and countries united in the same prayer for peace.

From a small group in Venezuela to a worldwide prayer movement

The “One Million Children Praying the Rosary” initiative began in Venezuela in 2005 and has gradually grown into a worldwide prayer movement involving children, families, parishes, schools and Church groups on every continent.

The campaign is inspired by the words attributed to Saint Padre Pio of Pietrelcina:

“When one million children pray the Rosary, the world will change.”

The invitation is not addressed only to children. ACN also encourages parents, teachers, priests, religious, catechists and families to pray with them. It is not necessary to pray the entire Rosary: even a single decade, prayed in faith, can become part of this worldwide chain of prayer.

ACN provides prayer materials in several languages and invites participants to register their participation, helping to make visible on a map the network of children joining the prayer in different countries.

The international initiative is organised in collaboration with the Shrine of Fatima, the Pope’s Worldwide Prayer Network and the World Apostolate of Fatima. This year, World Rosary Day is also joining the campaign for the first time.

The post Pope Leo to pray Rosary for Peace with hundreds of children at the Vatican appeared first on Aid to the Church in Need (Malta).

The international president of Aid to the Church in Need (ACN), Cardinal Kurt Koch, has called on the pontifical foundation to continue to bear witness to the truth and beauty of the Gospel, with joy and courage. 

Speaking to a meeting of ecclesiastical assistants of the national offices of ACN, Cardinal Koch defined the nature of the Church as one of mission. 

“The Church as a whole is dedicated to the transmission of the faith and to mission, though only if it not only proclaims the Word of God but is itself a place where God is present, so that people may experience that the Church exists first and foremost ‘for God’s sake’. It is not an end in itself, but exists so that a glimpse of God may emerge in the world,” said the Swiss cardinal, adding that “from its very inception, Christianity has understood itself as a religion entrusted with a universal mission addressed to all people and nations.”

However, he explained, this mission can only be carried out by people who are prepared to convey “concrete, personal witnesses,” even if that means paying the ultimate price. 

“Bearing witness to the truth and beauty of the Gospel remains the mission of Christians today. The secret of this mission lies in a convincing Christian life and in sharing what has been experienced in faith. In the presence of the ecclesiastical assistants from the charity “Aid to the Church in Need”, it is particularly fitting to recall that the most credible witnesses to the faith and the most convincing interpreters of the Gospel of Jesus Christ are the martyrs – that is, those Christians who have laid down their lives for their faith in Jesus Christ,” Cardinal Koch explained, highlighting that recalling that “the Christian faith is the most persecuted religion today.” 

Vatican City, 9 September 2026. Pope’s Meeting with ecclesiastical assistants from national offices of ACN 

“This harrowing reality not only presents a major challenge to showing compassionate solidarity with persecuted Christians, but also opens up the possibility that the Church’s mission can be carried out today in ecumenical fellowship. For today, all Christian churches and ecclesial communities have their martyrs,” and “the blood that the martyrs shed for Christ today does not divide us Christians, but unites us.”

In any case, Cardinal Koch explained, it should not be fear that guides the Church’s efforts, but joy. “Proclaiming the joy of the Gospel of Jesus Christ is therefore the Church’s most important mission today. Joy is the innermost driving force of the Church’s mission.”

“Passing on the faith and mission are therefore not merely a duty, but the very dynamic of the experienced faith itself. Today, this takes place above all through personal witness to the faith, as it were, through ‘word of mouth’. It does not take place today so much through consumer-friendly advertising or the distribution of large quantities of printed material, nor is it carried out through the media. Rather, the decisive medium through which God’s radiance shines forth is the Christians themselves, who live out their faith credibly and thus give the Gospel a personal face.”

“Passing on the faith and mission require baptised people whose hearts are filled with God and whose minds are enlightened by the light of God, so that their hearts may touch the hearts of others and their minds may speak to the minds of other people. Then what the Second Vatican Council passionately emphasised can become a reality: that the Church is “missionary by its very nature” and that its purpose is to evangelise – including through the work carried out by the papal foundation Aid to the Church in Need.”

Vatican City, 9 September 2026. During Pope’s Meeting with ecclesiastical assistants from national offices of ACN and Cardinal Kurt Koch highlighted the “ecumenism of the martyrs”.

Busy schedule and meeting with Pope Leo

The meeting of ecclesiastical assistants of the national offices of ACN took place in Rome from 7 to 11 September and included a private audience with Pope Leo XIV. 

Over 20 assistants travelled to the eternal city and gathered to exchange experiences, pray together and meet with high dignitaries in different departments of the Roman Curia, including Cardinal Koovakad, president of the Dicastery for Interreligious Dialogue; the president of the Dicastery for Evangelisation, Cardinal Tagle, and the sostituto of the Secretary of State, Archbishop Paolo Rudelli.

The ecclesiastical assistants returned home greatly enriched by the meeting and with a clearer understanding of their role and mission within ACN and of the importance of their office. The personal exchanges, common prayer and various presentations and reflections were especially valuable and greatly appreciated by all participants.

The meeting was also an opportunity for the ecclesiastical assistants to get to know Fr. Friedrich Bechina, who will be taking on the role of assistant to the International Office of ACN, in Konigstein, Germany. 

Fr Bechina will be replacing Fr Anton Lässer, who serve in the role for over three years, but will now be stepping down. 

The post CARDINAL KOCH: Bearing witness to the truth and beauty of the Gospel appeared first on Aid to the Church in Need (Malta).

Holy Family School in the old city of Gaza re-opened this morning for approximately 1,000 students, serving the local Holy Family Catholic Parish, but also the wider community with the majority of the students being Muslim.

Fr Gabriel Romanelli, said he hoped the re-opening of the school after almost three years of war since the Hamas attacks on 7 October 2023, will be “like a light in the darkness for the local community that has experienced so much suffering.”

Fr Romanelli told a delegation from the pontifical charity Aid to the Church in Need (ACN), that was visiting the Holy Land to assess the needs of the local Church and hear first-hand about their situation, that “the needs in Gaza are enormous.”

“For the students and the families, re-opening the school will bring some sense of normality. We have worked hard to ensure that it is a safe environment. There is almost nowhere in Gaza that has not been destroyed, destruction is all around – but we have worked hard to make the school a clean environment, where the children – who have been through so much – can feel safe,” Fr Romanelli told the visiting ACN delegation.

Before the war, five Christian schools operated in Gaza: three Catholic, one Orthodox and one Evangelical. Christian pupils were spread among these schools. Now, for the first time, all Christian students will attend the same school, Holy Family School.

Gaza, Latin Patriarchate School and Kindergarten. End of Year Ceremony (Year of Hope). 2025-2026 Academic Year. © LPJ.ORG

George Akroush, Director of the Project Development Office of the Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem, told ACN that around 130 Christian pupils will study at Holy Family School, making up approximately 13 percent of the student body.

“For the first time, all Christian students in Gaza will be studying together in one Christian school,” Akroush said. “This creates a strong sense of community and shows that the Church remains close to them, accompanying them in the midst of all they are going through.”

The school is re-opening after many of those internally displaced by the war have returned to their homes. Up to now, more than 450 people had been living in the school seeking shelter from the Israeli bombardment that followed the Hamas attacks.

Fr Romanelli said that the parish is committed to ensuring that the people can feel some sense of normality, “even though nothing is normal in Gaza”. Every Sunday, he said, after the parish Mass, he brings parishioners to the beach in Gaza City “even though the water in the beach is filled with rubble – everywhere in Gaza is filled with rubble – we want to have some time of recreation for the families.”

The war has changed everything in Gaza, Fr Romanelli told the delegation, and people remain deeply affected. “It is important also for the teachers that the school re-opens,” he said. “Many of the teachers are so traumatised, and it is almost as if they are not the same people who we knew before the start of the war.”

Gaza, Latin Patriarchate School and Kindergarten. End of Year Ceremony (Year of Hope). 2025-2026 Academic Year. © LPJ.ORG

Fr Romanelli said that special attention has been given to designing the school programme to take account of what everyone has been through. “In the past, for example, we never had psycho-social support on the school programme – now that will be an important part of what we do with the children and the teachers,” he said.

“Everyone in Gaza is carrying so much trauma,” he explained. Holy Family School will also serve as a vital base for post-school activities, with Fr Romanelli saying the children were asking him: “Please keep the school open after-school, Father, we have nothing to do and nowhere to go.”

“For me the school is a light in the darkness, it means a lot to people – when they see the 1,000 students coming in their uniforms to the school it shows them that there is a future,” he said.

Aid to the Church in Need, which has a special charism to serve the suffering and persecuted Church, has been providing financial and other support for the Holy Land, including Gaza, for many years.

The post Gaza Catholic school reopens for 1,000 pupils after nearly three years of war appeared first on Aid to the Church in Need (Malta).

From communities in the Bolivian Amazon to parishes in Sudan, Mozambique, Zimbabwe and Sierra Leone, preparations are already under way for this year’s “One Million Children Praying the Rosary” campaign.

One of the new features of the 2026 initiative is that it is being organised as a week of prayer, from 1 to 7 October. This will allow dioceses, parishes, schools, communities and families in different parts of the world to choose the day that best fits their pastoral and local circumstances, while remaining united around the same intentions of peace and unity.

The week will open on 1 October with a prayer vigil in Rome and will culminate on Wednesday, 7 October, the Feast of Our Lady of the Rosary.

This year’s campaign is inspired by the message of Fatima: “In the end, my Immaculate Heart will triumph.” In the invitation to take part in the initiative, Cardinal Kurt Koch, President of Aid to the Church in Need (ACN) International and Prefect of the Dicastery for Promoting Christian Unity, recalls that the Immaculate Heart of Mary represents a life entirely open to the Holy Spirit and points to Mary as a model of faith, love and prayer. 

The invitation also places the campaign against the background of a world marked by conflict and suffering, recalling Christ’s words in the Gospel of John: “In the world you will have trouble. But take courage; I have overcome the world.” It speaks of the realities experienced today in so many countries: violence, war, poverty and real tribulation, but also the extraordinary consolation that can arise through prayer.

One Million Children Praying the Rosary 2025

The responses already reaching ACN show what this worldwide chain of prayer can look like in very different parts of the world.

In Sudan, where war continues to inflict enormous suffering on the population, Fr Franck Mandozi, from the Pastoral Region of Kosti, has confirmed that children from different parishes and schools will take part: “Indeed, Sudan and many parts of the world are in need of the intercession of Our Lady for peace in the world. With this in mind, we shall encourage children in our different parishes and schools” to participate in the campaign, he wrote to ACN.

Thousands of kilometres away, in a T’siman indigenous community in the Bolivian Amazon, Sister Patricia Alejandra Botello López says that the Rosary is already being prayed with children in both T’siman and Spanish.

“We have already been praying it in both T’siman and Spanish since before 13 May because of the dramatic situation we have been experiencing in Bolivia for months, but now we will strengthen this prayer so that we can unite spiritually with you”, she told ACN.

“We have already been doing this in Tsimané and Spanish since before 13 May, due to the dramatic situation we have been experiencing in Bolivia for several months. But now we will strengthen these efforts in order to unite ourselves spiritually with you.”

In Zimbabwe, St Christopher’s Parish in the Archdiocese of Bulawayo will gather children on Sunday, 4 October. But for parish priest Fr Charles Mafurutu, the initiative will not end there. In the weeks that follow, he hopes to travel to remote communities and Mass centres scattered across the parish, some many kilometres away, to bring together children and pray the Rosary with them for peace.

In Paraguay, Radio Pa’i Puku plans not only to promote the campaign over the airwaves, as it has done for several years, but also to broadcast live the Rosary prayed by children at the parish of San Eugenio de Mazenod and to invite families, parishes, schools and catechists to join in.

Similar messages have reached ACN from Ethiopia, Mozambique and Sierra Leone, among other countries. They come from places with very different realities, but share the same conviction: at a time when the needs facing so many people are immense, prayer is not something secondary, but necessary.

The campaign is inspired by the words attributed to Saint Padre Pio: “When one million children pray the Rosary, the world will change.” It began in Venezuela in 2005 and has since developed into a worldwide prayer movement involving families, parishes, schools and children’s groups on every continent.

The campaign invites adults not only to encourage children to pray, but to pray with them. As the invitation letter emphasises, whether children pray alone or together, whether they pray the whole Rosary or only one mystery, every prayer has value. The Rosary, it says, leads children with Mary into the life of Jesus, while their prayer has a particular strength because it is simple, trusting and open to the grace of God.

ACN provides prayer materials to help children, families, schools and parishes take part in the campaign. Participants are invited to register their prayer so that, once again, the map can gradually show children from different countries joining one another in prayer for peace.

This year, World Rosary Day joins the campaign for the first time, alongside long-standing partners the Shrine of Fatima, the Pope’s Worldwide Prayer Network and the World Apostolate of Fatima.

The post FROM ROME TO THE WORLD: Children unite in a Week of Prayer for Peace appeared first on Aid to the Church in Need (Malta).

“In some places along the Bhote Koshi River, entire villages have been wiped out. Many houses along the river were swept away. So far, 624 people have been confirmed dead and 2,400 are still missing,” Father Silas Bogati, Apostolic Administrator of the Apostolic Vicariate of Nepal, told the pontifical foundation Aid to the Church in Need (ACN).

Initial investigations point to a sudden release of water in a glacial area of Tibet, possibly caused by the outburst of a glacial lake, although the exact causes are still being investigated.

Father Bogati confirms Rasuwa, on Nepal’s border with Tibet, as the worst-affected area and explains that “an important trade route with Tibet runs through this region, and Syabrubesi is also located there, one of the main departure points for tourists travelling towards the Langtang Valley”.

“All these hotels and settlements were swept away. There has been a high death toll in this area, and the river continued downstream, wreaking havoc across five districts. The flood has caused enormous devastation, as a huge mass of water surged downstream, destroying everything in its path. Some communities are still cut off, and search and rescue operations are proving difficult,” the Apostolic Administrator of Nepal told ACN.

Nepal’s Catholic community is very small compared with the country’s overall population. According to the Apostolic Administrator, “the Catholic Church has 13 parishes and 10,000 Catholics, but it has always worked for the Nepali population irrespective of their religion, and we will continue to do so as they suffer in this hour of need.”

As for the small Catholic community, Father Bogati said in his interview with the charity that “members of one of the Catholic communities go down to Syabrubesi to work. Some of them may have been swept away by the waters. We do not have any figures yet. Regarding buildings, no Catholic churches or chapels have been destroyed.”

The Church has already begun providing emergency assistance and assessing needs in the affected areas. Caritas Nepal has set up community kitchens and dispatched food to provide meals for 300 affected families for 15 days. In areas that remain inaccessible, assistance will be expanded through local partners. With further rainfall forecast and many people still sleeping outdoors, tarpaulins, blankets and sleeping mats are also among the priorities.

In a country where Catholics are few and geographically very isolated, Father Bogati also stresses the importance of feeling that Nepal’s small Church is not alone: “The Holy Father, Pope Leo, was the first to pray and to show his sympathy and closeness to the victims of these flash floods. In the same way, we are receiving prayers and support from the Catholic Church around the world,” he explains.

For Father Bogati, however, the Church’s mission is not limited to material assistance: “By being there, providing relief now and, later, contributing to reconstruction, we give hope. Our presence among those who are suffering will give them hope,” he says.

The apostolic administrator is making a special appeal for prayers for the victims and all those affected by the disaster, and expresses his gratitude for the closeness and solidarity of ACN and its benefactors with Nepal’s small Catholic community.

The post NEPAL: “Our presence among those who are suffering will give them hope” appeared first on Aid to the Church in Need (Malta).

The strike was supposed to be indefinite, but was called off after one day, after Israeli authorities renewed some of the permits.

In a statement sent to Aid to the Church in Need (ACN), the headmaster of the Collège des Frères in Jerusalem, warns of the consequences of this situation for students, families, and the future of the Christian presence in the Holy Land.

“The start of the school term should be a moment of joy, reunions, and hope. For Christian schools in Jerusalem, the beginning of the 2026–2027 academic year is unfortunately marked by a new crisis,” said Brother Daoud Kassabry.

In a press release published on 31 August, the General Secretariat of Christian Educational Institutions in Jerusalem formally announced the suspension of school activities in its schools starting Tuesday, 1 September. The decision follows the non-renewal of entry permits into the city for over 70 teachers and staff members. Their absence hinders teaching as well as administration, technical, and sanitary services, affecting a total of more than 8,500 students.

The difficulty stems from Jerusalem’s special status and the restrictions governing access to the city for Palestinians from the West Bank. The affected teachers and staff require Israeli permits to enter. However, as the new term approached, their entry permits were not renewed. The 31 August statement emphasises that this measure was taken “suddenly and without prior notice”. The situation makes a “safe and stable” start to the school year impossible.

Brother Daoud Kassabry added that “this suspension fits into a broader context of restrictions concerning the recruitment and qualifications of Palestinian teachers.” In his view, the problem cannot be reduced to a simple administrative difficulty. “For us, a teacher cannot be replaced overnight. They bring expertise, experience, an understanding of the students, and a relationship of trust with families.”

Behind the permits, families

The crisis is also a human one. “Behind every non-renewed permit, there is a person, a family, and a livelihood threatened,” Brother Daoud Kassabry explained to ACN.

The establishments must also continue to cover their overheads even while classes are suspended. This situation risks compounding their financial difficulties, in a context where many families are already struggling to pay tuition fees. Jerusalem has experienced a particularly difficult economic situation since the start of the war and the collapse of tourism.

A school for Christians and for all of society

Christian schools in Jerusalem welcome both Christian and Muslim students. They are places for learning mutual respect, which holds particular importance in a city where communities live in a state of division. At the Collège des Frères, in Jerusalem, this mission is rooted in a 150-year history. 

For Christians, these schools also represent an essential element of their presence in the Holy City. A family needs to be able to work, but also to offer its children a stable, high-quality education. When these two conditions are undermined, the very possibility of remaining in Jerusalem can be compromised as well.

Confronted with the current situation, Christian schools called for the necessary permits to be swiftly “reissued and renewed”. In their statement, they also requested that such measures cease and not recur in the future, in order to preserve the stability of educational institutions and guarantee students “a regular and safe education”.

The decision to call the strike, as well as the appeal of the Christian schools, appears to have borne fruit, as Israeli authorities renewed some of the permits on 1 September. “Some for one week, some for a month and some until the end of this year” said George Akroush, director of development at the Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem. However, “this means that over 70 teachers did not get their full permits until the end of the academic year. Church authorities will continue to apply pressure to the authorities concerning these teachers, and are hopeful that the full permits will be issued soon, perhaps after Christmas,” Akroush added.

Brother Daoud said: “We call on the relevant authorities, Church leaders, and international partners to support a swift and lasting solution. The children of Jerusalem need stability, confidence, and an open future.”

The post Christian schools in Jerusalem protest non-renewal of entry permits for teachers appeared first on Aid to the Church in Need (Malta).

The Indonesian island of Flores was recently struck by a severe earthquake that registered at 7.7 in the Richter scale. The 15 August earthquake caused at least 70 deaths, injured over 1000 people and left tens of thousands displaced. 

“Although Indonesia is the largest Muslim country in the world, in demographic terms, the island of Flores is one of the few in the large archipelago that is majority Christian. Flores is considered one of the breadbaskets for vocations to the religious life in all of Indonesia”, explains Marco Bachmann, project director for the area at Aid to the Church in Need (ACN).

Fittingly, the Church has responded quickly, and come to the aid of the victims of this natural disaster. In a video message sent to ACN, Bishop Siprianus Hormat of Ruteng, one of the six dioceses in the Island of Flores, explained that “through the parishes and institutions of the Diocese, we immediately provided emergency assistance to the victims. We provided tents for those affected in various parishes, set up a booth for patients at Ruteng Regional Hospital, gathered assistance from various parties, and established relief posts.”

Local dioceses have also played a major role in collecting information for verification of data on affected victims, in coordination with government agencies; the implementation of mitigation efforts and, of course, the provision of spiritual and pastoral assistance. 

ACN has projects with dioceses in Flores and, upon hearing of the terrible earthquake, which damaged dozens of thousands of homes and at least 75 churches and chapels, immediately established contact with project partners to determine what sort of assistance was needed. 

Earthquake in Indonesia 15 August 2026.
Damage caused by the earthquake.

As of now, ACN has committed to help the local Church meet the needs of those who were worst affected by the earthquake. “ACN is in direct contact with the bishops of the dioceses that have been most affected by the earthquake. Our charity has already approved help for the dioceses of Ruteng and Labuan Bajo for the distribution of essential goods, such as clothes, medicines and food. We are committed to also help the other impacted dioceses”, said Bachmann.

“In the future, ACN will evaluate requests for the reconstruction of churches, and eventually other structures belonging to the church or religious congregations,” he added.

“Alongside material aid, we are providing psychological support through trauma-healing activities for victims, particularly affected children. These activities involve diocesan priests, religious brothers and religious sisters,” said the Bishop of Ruteng. “No less important is spiritual strengthening through pastoral visits, messages and prayer sessions with the earthquake victims.” 

Earthquake in Indonesia 15 August 2026.
Sister praying with children in the Loce parish (village).

The disaster has also raised painful questions of faith, the bishop acknowledged: “Where is God? Why did He allow the earthquake to happen?” Drawing on his visits to dozens of disaster sites and his meetings with victims, he added: “It is deeply moving to witness how their tears of sorrow slowly transform into the dawn of hope. God always cares. His steadfast love never ceases.”

Bishop Hormat concluded with an appeal: “I ask for your prayers and assistance. May God shower His blessings upon the victims, and upon all.”

The earthquake in Indonesia comes fast on the heels of two other natural disasters, both in South America. In June, a double earthquake caused severe damage and a high death toll in Venezuela, and in August Colombia was also struck by a quake that caused structural and humanitarian damage. 

The post INDONESIA: Bishop witnesses “tears of sorrow slowly transform into the dawn of hope” appeared first on Aid to the Church in Need (Malta).

Credit: Vatican News

The post Cardinal Parolin prays for persecuted Christians worldwide appeared first on Aid to the Church in Need (Malta).