On Monday, August 11, women and children in Nigeria blocked a road in protest of their lack of security, after their besieged town fell victim to yet another fatal attack.   Three people were killed, and three others were critically injured, in Yelewata, Benue State on Monday, at around 8 A.M. The town, which is up to 98 percent Christian, has seen the deadliest offensives by Islamist militants in recent months; hundreds in the region have been killed, and thousands were ...

As endless wars scar the face of the Earth, worldwide representatives of female religious have issued a call for prayer and fasting, asking the Virgin Mary to intercede for peace among mankind. ACN is happy to join this initiative.   International charity Aid to the Church in Need (ACN) is joining the call issued by the International Union of Superiors General (IUSG) for a day of prayer and fasting for world peace, on August 14, the eve of the Feast of ...

At 45, the Ukrainian bishop Maksym Ryabukha is one of the youngest bishops in the world. He is also in charge of one of the most delicate territories in the world: east-central Ukraine, covering the regions of Donetsk, Luhansk, Dnipro, and Zaporizhzhia. Half of his exarchate – the eastern Christian equivalent of a diocese – is off-limits, occupied by Russian forces. Even the cathedral is closed. He refers to himself as a “bishop on wheels,” because he is constantly on ...

In the heart of southeastern Guatemala, the small village of Villa Graciela bears witness to the humility and perseverance of the Church. Thanks to the silent commitment of laypeople, such as Mirna Sucely Ramírez and José Flavio Silvestre, pastoral life flourishes among the community, which has been struggling to rebuild not only the physical structure of the Church of Christ of Esquipulas, but also the faith of its neighbors. This is a story which, thanks to the solidarity of ACN ...

A local priest also tells ACN that jihadists have taken to kidnapping children as part of their insurgency.  Almost 50,000 people have been displaced in the most recent round of attacks in the northern region of Cabo Delgado, Mozambique, namely at the end of July and in the first week of August, according to United Nations staff on the ground.  “Between July 20-28, the Diocese of Pemba was particularly impacted by the new wave of brutal attacks, especially the districts ...

The small Catholic community in Finland keeps growing year after year, and relations with its Orthodox and Lutheran brothers and sisters are remarkable.  Imagine a country the size of Italy with only eight parishes and 29 priests, or living 186 miles away from the closest Catholic church. This is everyday life for Bishop Raimo Goyarrola of Helsinki in Finland.   This Nordic country, with its majestic countryside and Lutheran tradition, has only a handful of Catholics, merely 0.2 percent of the ...