Keeping the Faith Alive
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The Voice of the suffering and persecuted​

The future of Christians in Iraq, five years after ISIS invasion

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"We Christians are a people of hope. But facing the end also brings us clarity, and with it the courage to finally speak the truth. Our hope to remain in our ancient homeland now rests on our own ability, and the ability of our oppressors and of the world at large, to acknowledge the truth. Violence and discrimination targeting the innocents must end. Those who teach it must stop."
Father Duraid Barber

On Iraq’s Nineveh Plains, a priest tells his flock to be courageous

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FATHER DURAID Barber is a priest of the Syriac-Catholic Archdiocese of Mosul, Kirkuk and Kurdistan. Born and raised in Qaraqosh, a Christian town on the Nineveh Plains, he spent three years in exile in Kurdistan after ISIS swept through the region. He returned to Qaraqosh in June 2017, the first priest to do so. He serves at St. Jacob’s Church and is on the staff of St. Paul’s House of Church Services. He recently spoke with Aid to the Church in Need: What motivates you in your pastoral work? My love of service, and the wide range of human ...

Summer camps in Syria—‘She felt her heart had begun to beat again’

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Summer camps in Syria—‘She felt her heart had begun to beat again’ THIS YEAR, Aid to the Church in Need (ACN) has been supporting more than 40 different summer programs for the benefit of Christian communities in countries where they are a minority, experience discrimination or where they are suffering as a result of conflict. Almost half of these projects are for Christian communities in the Middle East, above all in Syria, where ACN helped support 28 summer courses catering to young people and families. Father Antoine Mukhallala, a Melkite priest from the Archdiocese of Aleppo, has just returned ...

Catholic hospital closures in Eritrea: ‘It is like amputating one of the Church’s arms’

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“THE PURPOSE of the brutal actions of the Eritrean government was to divest the Church of all services in the areas of education and health. Our work is to be restricted only to our places of worship,” an Eritrean priest told Aid to the Church in Need (ACN). Father Mussie Zerai lives in Rome and coordinates pastoral work for Eritrea and Eritrean communities in Europe, which are steadily growing as thousands of people leave their homeland each year. In mid-June, the Eritrean military forcibly closed down 21 Catholic hospitals and other medical facilities. Patients were more or less thrown ...

UN resolution puts spotlight on faith-based violence

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THE UN GENERAL ASSEMBLY has passed a resolution establishing August 22 as the “International Day Commemorating the Victims of Acts of Violence Based on Religion or Belief.” Poland was the main sponsor of the resolution, which gained the support of 88 nations, including the United States, Canada, Brazil, Egypt, Iraq, Jordan, Nigeria and Pakistan. Aid to the Church in Need, which has been helping the suffering and persecuted Christians for more than 70 years, welcomes this resolution—which passed on May 28, 2019—as a first step towards drawing greater attention to religious persecution, particularly violence committed against Christians who suffer ...

Family of kidnapped Christian in Egypt: ‘We fear torture and savage death’

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" ... Militants clad in khaki stopped the vehicle. When they discovered that Uncle Adeeb was a Christian, they asked him to get out. Our biggest fear is that they may abuse, torture, and kill him, just as savagely as they have other Copts.”
Church in Sri Lanka St.-Sebastian-Church-in-Negombo

Christians in Sri Lanka are still in a state of shock

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Many Christians are severely traumatized and reluctant to go inside a church: “Many told me that they are afraid to enter a church at the moment or feel fear when they hear the bells ring.”

West African bishops meet in Burkina Faso against backdrop of jihadist terror

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"Both the West African bishops and the government in Burkina Faso have spoken out clearly: ‘we will not let them divide us. They will not be able to separate us into warring religious and ethnic groups.’ Because that is exactly what the terrorists want to see happen."

In Pakistan, discrimination turns violent for a Catholic teenager

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"It is dangerous for me in Pakistan. I have never felt respected, and I have never been able to worship freely. My textbook says that Jesus Christ is not the son of God, and that Christians are idolaters: I have no hope for peace, or religious tolerance."

In Indonesia, Non-Muslims Face bans in their community

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“This village rule contradicts Indonesian law: the Pancasila, the country’s official philosophical foundation, as well as our constitution. Intolerance like this must be avoided so that Yogyakarta’s reputation is not damaged."
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