The Voice of the suffering in Latin America

A devastating 7.4 magnitude earthquake struck much of western and central Colombia on Monday. While authorities assess the scale of the emergency, the Catholic Church is already accompanying affected communities and gathering information to gauge the most urgent needs. Aid to the Church in Need (ACN) is in direct contact with the bishops of dioceses located in the affected areas in order to determine the impact of the quake and coordinate emergency aid to be channeled through the Church. The ...

As the country sinks into an unprecedented crisis, corroded by armed gangs, the Church remains standing, sowing hope in the midst of despair. The legislative and presidential elections due to be held in Haiti on August 30 – the first since the assassination of President Jovenel Moïse in 2021 – have been postponed until December. But the idea of elections still seems like a distant dream in a country devastated by the violence of armed gangs, who control vast areas ...

The Catholic bishops of Mexico have marked the centenary of the “Calles Law,” which imposed restrictions on the life of the Church and placed priestly ministry under state control in Mexico, with a message entitled “The church bells fell silent; their blood spoke” and subtitled “In memory of our martyrs, religious freedom and peace-building.” The law came into force on July 31, 1926, and, as the Mexican bishops recall, “faced with the impossibility of freely exercising their ministry,” their predecessors ...

ACN has committed to a second aid package, which, according to its executive president, will be “much higher than the initial grant. The Church has been present in the streets of La Guaira and Caracas, to care for and accompany the thousands of victims of the double earthquake that wrought great destruction in Venezuela on June 24. In a press conference organized by Aid to the Church in Need International (ACN), Archbishop Raul Biord Castillo, S.D.B., of Caracas said that ...

ACN’s aid is currently supporting the religious and laity who are helping the victims on the ground, but future projects are already being studied and could include rebuilding church structures and trauma healing. The situation in La Guaira, Venezuela, can only be described as “apocalyptic,” according to the executive president of Aid to the Church in Need (ACN), Regina Lynch. “I was not expecting this extent of destruction,” said Lynch. “When you arrive there and you see these mountains of ...

“Seeing people embrace us and seek comfort in us is a sign that the Church’s mission is to be with the people,” says a future priest. Germán Jiménez, a seminarian from the Diocese of Petare, Venezuela, is in the final stage of formation before his ordination to the priesthood. From the very first moment following the double earthquake on June 24, he mobilized to bring material and spiritual aid to thousands of victims in La Guaira, the worst-affected region. According ...