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 ...

Throughout his journey, Father Landry will carry a monstrance with the Blessed Sacrament, presenting and proclaiming the Lord to fellow pilgrims and the many people he meets in parishes and chapels along the way.

The Maronite Archbishop of Tyre, Monsignor Charbel Abdallah, whose archdiocese is one of the oldest in the world, told ACN that despite “finding ourselves in a state of war,” most people who had fled to Beirut or further north have now returned because they were short of money, and their relatives did not have the capacity to accommodate so many people. In the ten parishes near the Israeli border, which make up almost the entirety of the archdiocese, 70 percent ...

The tragedy that struck the Masih family has far-reaching consequences, disrupting the lives of many in Mujahid Colony. Families are displaced; businesses have closed; and jobs have been lost, creating a ripple effect of hardship and despair.