$158M in donations to help suffering Christians
ACN presents its 2022 annual report, which summarizes a record year of support. Ukraine was the largest individual recipient of help in 2022, receiving almost 10 percent of all aid, while Africa, as a continent, received the most help.
In 2022, Aid to the Church in Need (ACN) broke a fundraising record, topping $158M in donations.
ACN does not receive money from states or other NGOs, which means that this aid was only possible due to the generosity of more than 364,000 individual benefactors donating $158M in total, almost $13M more than in 2021.
In a message to benefactors, the departing International Executive President of ACN, Thomas Heine-Geldern, said, “It is with gratitude and humility that we see that the blessing of the Almighty has once again rested on our work, and that our benefactors have heard the cries of our oppressed brothers and sisters. This allows us to face the future with confidence, even though our help will continue to be needed for years to come.”
With an additional $2.9M from reserves of previous years, projects amounting to more than $158M were financed in 2022. Of this spending, 82.6 percent, or $132M, went to mission-related activities. These activities consisted of project funding (87.2 percent) and information, advocacy, and evangelization work (12.8 percent) in line with ACN’s mission.
17.4 percent of spending, or $28M, went to administration (6.7 percent) and fundraising (10.7 percent).
In 2022, the largest individual recipient of ACN help was Ukraine, where ACN increased its assistance because of the ongoing conflict and its impact on the Ukrainian Catholic Church. 353 projects were funded in the country, especially for priests, religious, seminarians, and other Church people who work with refugees and others in desperate need. With $10M, Ukraine received almost 10 percent of ACN’s aid.
Regionally, Africa received the most aid from ACN benefactors (31.5 percent), followed by the Middle East and Central and Eastern Europe, with 18.1 percent and 17.7 percent, respectively. Latin America received 16.7 percent of aid, and Asia and Oceania accounted for 14.6 percent, with the remaining 1.4 percent going to other areas.
Besides the sum allocated to projects, $17M went to information, evangelization, and advocacy work, including the publication of religious literature, prayer campaigns, and the defense of the interests of persecuted Christians in decision-making centers.
ACN’s aid translated into 972 construction projects, over a third of which were churches or chapels, as well as1,253 vehicles, including 564 cars, 252 motorcycles, 16 boats, 11 buses,4 trucks, and 406 bicycles to make life easier for pastoral workers, especially in Africa and Latin America. The foundation also supported more than 40,000 priests,21,000 women religious, and 14,000 seminarians with Mass stipends.
Overall, ACN funded 5,702 projects, which is 404 more than in 2021. These projects were carried out in 1,199 dioceses – over a third of the total dioceses in the Catholic Church – and in 128 countries. The largest project ACN supported was the restoration of a partly destroyed parish center in Iraq, at almost one million US dollars, and the smallest was a training program in Colombia, valued at $324.
The financial results of ACN International in 2022 are being audited by the firm PwC (PricewaterhouseCoopers).
—Filipe d’Avillez & Maria Lozano
