The Voice of the suffering and persecuted​

According to the Director of social communications for the Diocese of Makurdi, Father Moses Iorapuu, the principal of the Father Angus Frazer Memorial High School, Father Emmanuel Ogwuche, switched off all the lights in the building after hearing gunshots outside, preventing terrorists from finding their way into the school.

He added: “All the kidnapped girls were converted to Islam, but the 14-year-old Leah Sharibu remained faithful to her Christian belief. Her freedom of religion and belief was violated, and today, she is still in captivity.”

Honduras has the highest percentage of Protestants of any country in Latin America. There has been a remarkable increase in the number of Evangelical churches, and Protestants currently outnumber Catholics.

“The realization that there are people in our country who are cruelly murdered or abducted and disappear for political reasons or other macabre interests makes one shudder."

Naturally, this affects the  Church. Parishes and communities are unable to provide services to the faithful; heating is limited;; and the Church’s social projects, including orphanages, nursing homes, schools, and kindergartens struggle to operate in darkness. Food poisoning is also rampant due to a lack of refrigeration.

This month, dozens of Christians have been killed in towns and villages across Nigeria’s Middle Belt, most recently around Easter, according to information sent to Aid to the Church in Need (ACN) by local Catholic leaders.

"I saw a ball of fire, and the roof began to fall. I covered my head with my arms and ran out of the church, where I found my father. I was in shock. My father asked me where my mother was, and I raced back into the church. I found her in the benches, injured and dying."

For more than 30 years, the eastern part of the country has been subject to violence carried out by 120 armed militias, who fight over territory and seek to exploit natural resources. These armed groups include the March 23 Movement (M23) and the Allied Democratic Forces (ADF), which is affiliated with the Islamic State. According to the United Nations, the conflict in the eastern Congo has resulted in six million deaths since 1996. The Congolese army has been unable to deal with the situation, and the millions displaced by the fighting are the largest such contingent in all of ...

“At the moment, we are living in a very polarized environment. There is a lot of pressure to pick a camp and make accusations, but if you do so, you become part of this game. The reality is very complicated, with many ‘footnotes,’ ‘brackets,’ and ‘parentheses.’”

“The origin of ACN is closely linked to the apparitions and grace of Fátima, where Our Lady chose to show the Church the path to triumph over evil in the world: through love, prayer, sacrifice, and consecration to her Immaculate Heart."