Aid to the Church in Need-USA, a pontifical foundation that helps Christians around the world live their faith under the most difficult circumstances, has appointed Msgr. Luke M. Sweeney, a priest of the Archdiocese of New York, to serve as its ecclesiastical assistant. Msgr. Sweeney, who formerly served at the Vatican Congregation for Bishops, now is Vice Rector and Dean of Seminarians at St. Joseph’s Seminary (Dunwoodie) in Yonkers, New York. He is responsible for the human formation of seminarians ...

Wherever religious freedom flourishes, peace and justice advance. But wherever it is denied, oppression follows. That’s why Aid to the Church in Need’s Religious Freedom in the World Report is much more than a compilation of statistics. It is a wakeup call. So says Marta Petrosillo, editor-in-chief of the report, due to be released October 21. ACN has been publishing the biannual Religious Freedom in the World Report for the past quarter century. It details the state of religious freedom ...

On October 21, religious and public leaders will gather at the Pontifical Patristic Institute Augustinianum in Rome for the worldwide presentation of the latest edition of the Report on Religious Freedom (RFR) 2025, prepared by the Catholic charity Aid to the Church in Need (ACN).  The program will include the participation of Cardinal Pietro Parolin, Vatican Secretary of State, who will deliver the inaugural address. Victims of religious persecution will also give first-hand testimonies, including two women who spent years ...

Archbishop Séamus Patrick Horgan, Apostolic Nuncio to South Sudan, has just completed a diplomatic mission through the places in the region most badly affected by the current civil war in Sudan. Over several days, the archbishop expressed Pope Leo’s solidarity and closeness with the Christian community, which has struggled to keep its faith in the midst of the conflict.    Speaking to Catholic charity Aid to the Church in Need (ACN), Fr. Jorge Naranjo, a Spanish missionary with a long track ...

Bashar Matti Warda reflects on founding, growth, and future of institution born amid ISIS invasion. On December 8, 2015, in a city in northern Iraq, 11 students began taking classes in a new university, born amid terror, war, and fear – and one of the most dramatic persecutions of Christians to be seen in modern times. The name of the new institution was The Catholic University in Erbil (CUE). Its initial enrollment of 11 doesn’t sound like much, but for ...

In the summer of 2014, Yohana Yaqoob Abdeesh Al-Zeebaree was a 12-year-old boy when his world turned upside down. From his home in Duhok, a city in northern Iraq, he recalls the whispers spreading across neighborhoods: ISIS was moving closer. “There was this huge scare,” said Al-Zeebaree, a Chaldean Catholic who is now 23. “I remember the night when they said ISIS got close to the northern cities, like Erbil and Duhok. Everyone was watching the news, and we got ...