Projects in Need
A New Church in Guatemala
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Throughout Latin America, Our Lady of Guadalupe is revered with great devotion. Often, the love that people hold for her is the one thing that prevents them from wandering away to the sects, who are everywhere. In Guatemala, in the municipality of Tierra Nueva Dos, the local community is building a new church dedicated to her. The number of Catholics is actually growing in this small municipality, which is plagued by unemployment, violence, and crime. Almost 600 people regularly attend ...
A New Vehicle for Priests in the Central African Republic
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“Hail Mary…” The Rosary beads slip gently through the fingers as the jeep bounces over the deep potholes. Every now and then, it threatens to overturn. “…Pray for us sinners, now and at the hour of our death…” The voices rise, pleading more insistently, especially as night begins to fall. Suddenly, the wheels begin to spin; the vehicle is stuck fast in the mud. A daily experience in so many countries around the world, where priests and religious have to ...
The Repair and Expansion of a Church in Albania
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Our Lady’s month of May is also the month of the birth of Pope St. John Paul II, who had a profound devotion to the Mother of God. In Bathore, Albania, there is a parish dedicated to this great pope and saint. Most of the 35,000 people who live in Bathore have migrated here from the mountainous northern regions of the country. Traditionally, the girls marry young and become homemakers, while many of the young men tend to drop out ...
A Retreat for Religious Sisters in Indonesia
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On the eastern side of the Indonesian island of Sumba, the 56 Sisters of Charity of the Precious Blood work tirelessly — caring for orphans, teaching children who otherwise couldn’t go to school, visiting families in the outlying villages, and helping them with practical and spiritual advice. They work very hard, and in very difficult conditions, so the community has asked for our help. Our help will make it so they can offer retreats and spiritual exercises and give the ...
Formation for Religious Sisters in India
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It all began with eight young women in 1942. The Bishop of Shillong at the time was aware that many families in the north and northeast of India — most of whom belong to the disadvantaged ethnic minorities — were living in deep poverty. In order to help them, he founded a religious community, the Missionary Sisters of Mary Help of Christians. Today, the more than 1,460 sisters of this congregation belong to some 68 different indigenous ethnic groups. This ...
Psychological Training for Priests in Ukraine
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In the early months of the war in Ukraine, the immediate need was material aid for refugee families. Now, the need is, above all, for spiritual and psychological help. Priests are often the first ones the people turn to. Iryna is from Konotop, in northeast Ukraine. She had been baptized but didn’t have any faith. She recalls, “After panic attacks had literally robbed me of the last of my strength, I found comfort in the Church. Fear entered my life ...
A Vehicle for Prison Chaplains in Egypt
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“Today, you will be with Me in Paradise” (Lk. 23:43). That was the promise of Jesust to the good thief hanging beside Him on the cross. Today, it is often the prison chaplains who witness similar miracles of conversion in the hearts of former criminals when they encounter Jesus. “Special hospitals for souls” is how one priest, who worked for many years as a prison chaplain, once described prisons. Many of the prisoners are broken, spiritually, psychologically, and morally, and ...
A Religious Center in Syria
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Azza Al-Bittar, 42, lives together with her husband and her son in Homs, where the war began in 2011. She tells us, “My faith was born and grew in a wounded country. I lived through the civil war, with all its devastation and instability. Then the pandemic struck, raising a great question mark over our life and death. And in 2023, as though we had not already suffered enough, the earthquake shook the ground beneath our feet.” But then she ...
A Program for 120 Christian Girls in Pakistan
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The Capuchin Fathers in Lahore, Pakistan are launching a program for 120 young Christian women and girls. This program aims to make them aware of their inherent God-given dignity as women, to deepen their faith and to teach them how to respond appropriately to provocative questions about Christianity. Since most of these women are poor and obliged to work in vulnerable positions, such as housemaids, cleaners, and factory workers, they are very much at the mercy of their employers and ...
Courses for Christian Girls in Pakistan
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Again and again in the Gospel, there are women who approach Jesus with the boldness of a strong faith and ask for His help. Indeed, the woman with the issue of blood even believed that merely by touching His garment, she would be healed. And so, it was. Still today, women come to Jesus to seek His help and protection, not least in Pakistan, where Christian women are doubly discriminated against — both as women and as Christians. Christians are ...