The Voice of the suffering in Middle East

Fr. Youssef Semaan looks on as the conflict in Lebanon empties his village and threatens decades of coexistence between Christians and Muslims. The war in southern Lebanon is damaging more than just infrastructure, as it causes profound changes to the social relations and human fabric of communities where Christians and Muslims live side by side, says Fr. Youssef Semaan, a Maronite parish priest. Fr. Youssef serves in Kfour, a village in the district of Nabatieh, where Christians and Muslims have ...

The Israeli military on Tuesday attacked the Lebanese port city of Tyre, in a continuing attempt to disarm the threat from the militant group Hezbollah. Tyre is home to one of the largest of Lebanon’s historic Christian communities. The military action killed at least eight people and injured dozens. Last week, Israel said Hezbollah operatives were active inside the Christian neighborhood and called on residents “to demand the removal of the organization’s operatives from your areas.” Regina Lynch, President of ...

In a message to Paul III Nona, ACN’s executive president recalled the sufferings of the Chaldean faithful in Iraq, who “have been so often called to bear witness to their Christian faith in times of persecution and suffering.” The new Patriarch of the Chaldean Catholic Church was officially installed on Friday, May 29, during a solemn ceremony in the Cathedral of St. Joseph, Baghdad, Iraq. Leaders of other Christian Churches, representatives from the Vatican, and Iraqi government figures were in ...

Lebanese bishop works to keep up evangelization efforts, welcome refugees, live alongside Shia Muslims, and encourage hope in the midst of war. The Congregation of the Monks of Beit Maroun, Servants of the Cedar of Lebanon, is a new congregation founded in 2019, composed of three priests and 20 brothers and placed under the authority of Maronite Archbishop Hanna Rahme of Baalbek Deir El-Ahmar. What distinguishes this congregation is that one of their vows is evangelization, and Archbishop Rahme knows ...

The Christian residents of the south Lebanese border town of Yaroun fear that they will never be able to return to the land of their ancestors. Fr. Charles Naddaf, the parish priest of the local Melkite Greek Catholic church, spoke to Aid to the Church in Need (ACN) about the community’s concerns. “Yaroun is deeply wounded,” says Fr. Naddaf of the Parish of Saint George. On May 1, 2026, the parish hall, which was serving as a makeshift church, was ...

Archbishop Jean-Clément Jeanbart believed that had it not been for the care of God the Christians of Syria would have been wiped out during the civil war. It was with sadness that Catholic charity Aid to the Church in Need (ACN) learned of the death of its long-time project partner Archbishop Jean-Clément Jeanbart, aged 83, on Saturday May 9. He was the Melkite Greek Catholic Archbishop of Aleppo, Syria, from 1995 to 2021. ACN had a long-standing relationship with the ...