Eight months after hundreds of Christians were massacred on Christmas Eve, and three months after another carnage on Easter Monday, the Nigerian government has failed to keep people safe, according to a priest caring for displaced people. Survivors of massacres by extremists in Nigeria’s Middle Belt “have no trust” in their leaders as they face continued attacks on their farms and an increasing food shortage, Father Andrew Dewan, director of communications in the Diocese of Pankshin, revealed. Father Dewan told ...

A decrease in the influence of Islamist extremism in Egypt has made it possible for Christians to rebuild damaged churches and even consider building new ones.   The Egyptian government has lifted restrictions on the construction of churches, allowing the Coptic Catholic community to begin restoring St. George’s Cathedral in Luxor – destroyed by a fire in 2016 – and make plans to build more places of worship in the country, according to Coptic Catholic Patriarch Ibrahim Sidrak of Alexandria.   Patriarch ...

On July 16th, thirty years after returning to Bangladesh, the Jesuits are opening a new novitiate in the South Asian country, where Christians are a small minority. By allowing the novices to have their initial formation in the local languages and culture, the Jesuits hope to promote vocations.  A “Grace of God”: this is how the Jesuit Mission Superior in Bangladesh, Father Ripon Rozario, SJ, describes the support offered by the Catholic charity Aid to the Church in Need (ACN). ...

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 ...