Many feared that the invasion of the Nineveh Plains would drive Christians from Iraq for good, but ten years after militants of the Islamic state drove them from their homeland, thousands of Christians have returned to houses rebuilt with the help of ACN, taking with them their love for the Church and the hope of the Gospel.  “Words cannot describe what we experienced 10 years ago. ISIS tried to eradicate us, but they failed,” said Nizar Semaan, the Syriac Catholic ...

Gerald Musa’s father converted to Christianity at age 12. He could not have imagined then that his son would become the first bishop from the influential Hausa people.   Though mostly used nowadays to refer to the Pope, bishops in the Catholic Church have traditionally been called “pontifex,” which is Latin for “bridge maker.” This title is particularly appropriate in the case of Bishop Gerald Mamman Musa of Katsina, in northern Nigeria.  In 2023, Gerald Musa became the first-ever member of ...

Nigerian priest Father Mikah Suleiman was released on Sunday, July 7th, after more than two weeks in captivity.   The parish priest of St. Raymond’s Catholic Church in Damba, Nigeria had been abducted from his presbytery in the Diocese of Sokoto, in the early hours of Saturday, June 22nd. In the days that followed, fears for his safety grew, especially after a video was released, in which the captive priest warned of threats to kill him. Father Suleiman said, “[The bandits] told ...

The chair of the Catholic Church’s National Commission for Justice and Peace in Pakistan lambasted a court for sentencing a Christian man to death after being found guilty of blasphemy. This happened  in connection with one of the country’s worst-ever atrocities against minorities.   Bishop Samson Shukardin of Hyderabad, president of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of Pakistan, called the judgment handed down in the case of Ehsan Shan “very, very painful.” The Sahiwal Anti-Terrorism Court found Shan guilty of blasphemy by ...

During his visit to the international headquarters of Aid to the Church in Need (ACN), Bishop Pavlo Honcharuk of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Kharkiv-Zaporizhzhia spoke about the situation on the ground in Ukraine. During the conversation, the bishop, who leads one of the largest dioceses in Europe, highlighted the importance of pastoral care in his region, which lies directly on the Russian border and is under heavy fire. According to the media, in June of this year alone, Russia fired ...

Devotion to the Catholic Church is a distinguishing feature of East Timorese culture. Pope Francis will be the second Pope to visit the country and the first since independence.  East Timor is one of the world’s youngest countries, having obtained independence in 2002. It is also the Asian country with the highest proportion of Catholics, at close to 99 percent of the population, and one of only two majority Catholic countries in Asia, alongside the Philippines.  Speaking to Aid to ...