The residents of eastern Bukavu in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), feel abandoned by the international community. But they know that if they flee, the M23, an armed rebel group backed by Rwanda, will take over their lands. “We don’t feel isolated, we feel abandoned,” says Fr. Floribert Bashimbe, the vicar-general of the Diocese of Bukavu, located in the east of the DRC, on the border with Rwanda. According to the priest, the conflict of interests over the extraction ...

The Church in Cuba continues to accompany a population marked by fear, need, and uncertainty. In a conversation with Aid to the Church in Need (ACN), Bishop Arturo González Amador, who is president of the Cuban Bishops’ Conference, describes the dramatic situation the island is currently experiencing. “Cuba is suffering,” says Bishop Arturo González Amador of Santa Clara, president of the Cuban Bishops’ Conference. “This is the saddest and most difficult time that I am aware of in the history ...

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 ...

A missionary warns that people have forgotten about Sudan, a country currently experiencing the worst humanitarian crisis in the world, due to a three-year-long civil war. As citizens of the world, all people share the responsibility for peacebuilding, including in places the world has forgotten, such as Sudan. That was the message a missionary priest in Sudan wanted to drive home in an interview with Aid to the Church in Need (ACN). “The Catholic Church teaches that we share a ...

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 ...

President Trump said that he will discuss the case of Catholic political prisoner Jimmy ‌Lai when he meets the Chinese president on his visit to Beijing this week. “Jimmy Lai – ​he caused lots of turmoil for ​China,” Trump told reporters May 11, the day before he took off for the US-China summit. “He tried to do the ⁠right thing. He wasn’t successful, went to jail, and people would like him out, and I’d like to see him get out ...