On the 110th World Day of Migrants and Refugees, ACN calls attention to worldwide need
For more than 70 years, ACN has been involved with refugees and displaced people worldwide. In the face of growing movements of refugees and migrants, the international Catholic charity continues to bring hope through its projects in crisis zones — including the Middle East, Latin America, Africa, and Europe.
On the 110th World Day of Migrants and Refugees, September 29th, the international Catholic charity Aid to the Church in Need (ACN) calls attention to the precarious situation of people around the world.
According to the International Organization for Migration (IOM), the number of people living in a country other than their country of birth has grown continuously in the last few decades. The current estimates come to over 280 million people. According to the United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR), at the end of 2023, over 117 million people worldwide were forcibly displaced. And along refugee and migration routes, people are often exposed to severe danger, rape, torture, abduction, arbitrary detention, robbery, and human trafficking.
In 1947, emergency relief for persecuted and displaced Christians was the impetus for the founding of ACN – at that time, still known as “Ostpriesterhilfe” – and since then, it has been among the charity’s top priorities. ACN continues to be alleviate the suffering of those who have been displaced.
Because of the threatened eradication of Christians, the Middle East is an important focus for the charity, since millions of people there have been driven out by ongoing conflicts. Among other things, ACN helps families and young people to become independent so they can stay in their homeland.
Help for internally displaced people and refugees in Africa is concentrated on countries like Burkina Faso, Nigeria, and Mozambique, which are affected by poverty and Islamist violence. We support churches in providing pastoral care and help for refugees.
Many countries in Latin America also face considerable social, economic, and pastoral challenges because of a wave of migration, particularly from Venezuela, Haiti, Cuba, and Nicaragua. ACN supports local churches by encouraging pastoral work and making resources available to better cope with the flood of migrants and the rapid growth of cities as a result of the rural exodus.
Finally, in Europe, the focus of ACN lies particularly on Ukraine and supporting the local church in taking care of refugees and war victims, for which some 21 million dollars have been made available since the beginning of the war in 2022.
The Catholic Church established the World Day of Migrants and Refugees in 1914, to draw attention to the situation of migrants and refugees worldwide. The motto that Pope Francis has chosen for this year is: “God walks with his people.” In his message for the year, the Pope emphasizes: “God not only walks with his people, but also within them, in the sense that he identifies himself with men and women on their journey through history, particularly with the least, the poor, and the marginalized. In this, we see an extension of the mystery of the Incarnation.”
