The Voice of the suffering in Middle East
Here you’ll find the latest updates on the struggles and resilience of persecuted communities around the world. These stories highlight both the challenges they endure and the faith that sustains them. Stay connected to learn how hope continues to shine through suffering.
National Review: ACN Outreach Director discusses Christianity in Iraq
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One of Iraq’s most prominent Christian leaders has deeper concerns. On the fifth anniversary of the ISIS invasion of northern Iraq, Bashar Warda of the Chaldean Catholic archdiocese of Erbil, Kurdistan, stresses that “Christianity in Iraq is perilously close to extinction.”
Iraqi Christians fear appointment of Islamic judges to country’s highest court
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IN A COUNTRY where Christians have been subject to targeted bombings, kidnapping, and discrimination, Church leaders are grappling with a new crisis: an attempt to give Islamic clerics voting rights on Iraq’s highest court, the Federal Supreme Court. The move, which is under consideration by the Iraqi Parliament, would bring Iraq a step closer to an Iran-like theocracy, in which non-Muslims are forced to live under Islamic Sharia law. For example, in Iran, Christian women are forced to wear the ...
In Syria, a teen’s faith helps during civil war
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PITER ESSA, 17, just graduated from High School in Aleppo, Syria. Piter, who is Syriac-Orthodox, tells Aid to the Church in Need (ACN) about some of his painful experiences during his country’s civil war: “I’ve survived this awful war, and I live my life like I used to. My school didn’t close at all, so I was able to continue with my studies; I graduated from High School this year. “I was separated from many friends who were forced to ...
Pope Francis blesses 6,000 rosaries, gifts to console Syrian families—ACN sponsors initiative
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niON THE FEAST of the Assumption, August 15, Pope Francis, during the Angelus prayer in St Peter’s Square, blessed 6,000 rosaries destined for Syria. They will be given to Christians in Syria who have had relatives or family members abducted or murdered during the civil war. This is part of an ecumenical initiative by Aid to the Church in Need (ACN) in partnership with Catholic and Orthodox Churches in Syria. “The rosaries, made at the initiative of ACN, are a ...
The future of Christians in Iraq, five years after ISIS invasion
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"We Christians are a people of hope. But facing the end also brings us clarity, and with it the courage to finally speak the truth. Our hope to remain in our ancient homeland now rests on our own ability, and the ability of our oppressors and of the world at large, to acknowledge the truth. Violence and discrimination targeting the innocents must end. Those who teach it must stop."
On Iraq’s Nineveh Plains, a priest tells his flock to be courageous
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FATHER DURAID Barber is a priest of the Syriac-Catholic Archdiocese of Mosul, Kirkuk and Kurdistan. Born and raised in Qaraqosh, a Christian town on the Nineveh Plains, he spent three years in exile in Kurdistan after ISIS swept through the region. He returned to Qaraqosh in June 2017, the first priest to do so. He serves at St. Jacob’s Church and is on the staff of St. Paul’s House of Church Services. He recently spoke with Aid to the Church ...
