This year, the Church commemorated the 1,700th anniversary of the Council of Nicaea, an important anniversary for the entire Christian world. Later this month, Pope Leo XIV is scheduled to visit Turkey, where the council was held, fulfilling the commitment made by Pope Francis before his death. Pope Leo plans to fly November 27 to Ankara, Turkey’s capital, where he will meet with President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and other officials. The next day, in Istanbul, he will meet with bishops, ...

For those who have lost loved ones, or even just their material goods, due to terrorist attacks in Mozambique, the work of religious sisters in the Diocese of Pemba, supported by ACN, has been a saving grace. Sister Aparecida Queiroz, a sister of the Congregation of the Daughters of Jesus, originally from Brazil, has been in Mozambique since 2017. Part of her mission there has been to help thousands of people displaced by terrorism in the province of Cabo Delgado, ...

In Kharkiv, in Ukraine’s war zone, the Church has dedicated itself to trauma healing. ACN’s help is like the hand of God, says the local bishop. Life in Kharkiv, Ukraine takes place against the constant background of the sounds of war. “There are permanently drones and rockets, and we hear them above our heads every day,” says Bishop Pavlo Honcharuk, the Latin Catholic Bishop of Kharkiv. “The worst are the fiber optic drones: they have a range of 50 kilometers, ...

The end of Christianity in Syria would be a great loss, because “the Church stands as a reminder to every one of the ethics of justice and human dignity as a supreme value,” says Archbishop Jacques Mourad.  The Church in Syria is “dying,” a Syriac Catholic bishop warned recently, during a presentation in Rome. Archbishop Jacques Mourad of Homs, Hama, and al-Nabek said the Church in Syria faces an unbearable and unsustainable political and legal situation, with Christians leaving the ...

Shagufta Kausar was sentenced to death for alleged blasphemy and spent over eight years in prison. She recently shared her story at the launch of the Religious Freedom in the World Report in Rome. In the summer of 2013, a mob broke into the simple house where Shagufta Kausar lived with her paralyzed husband, Shafqat Emanuel, and their four children. Civilians and police were calling for her, accusing her of blasphemy. She and her husband were beaten and taken to ...

At a time when war and armed conflicts fester around the globe, the U.S. Bishops Conference has reaffirmed that religious freedom is essential for lasting peace. Today, October 27, the United States observes International Religious Freedom Day to commemorate the signing of the International Religious Freedom Act in 1998. The chairmen of two U.S. Bishops Conference committees are marking the day with a call for renewed commitment to religious liberty. “Let us stand in solidarity with our brothers and sisters ...