Projects in Need
Scholarships for Poor Christian Students in Iraq
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For young Christians in Iraq, the inevitable question is this: Is it is really worthwhile to stay in my homeland? Many have already emigrated, and the number of Christians continues to decline, because so many families and young people can no longer see any future for themselves in their home country. But since 2015, the Catholic University in Erbil has been something of a “beacon and symbol of hope,” as Archbishop Bashar Warda puts it. They started with just 11 ...
Help for the Training of Seminarians in Bolivia
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At present, there are 20 young men training in the major seminary of Cochabamba in Bolivia. They come from various different parts of the country but are united in their wish to serve God and their brothers and sisters one day as priests. They represent a great hope for the Church in Bolivia, since the country urgently needs more priests in order to minister to the growing number of Catholic faithful. The seminarians come from very different backgrounds. Some of ...
A Vehicle for a Seminary in Angola
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In January 2025, the Diocese of Lwena in eastern Angola suffered a devastating blow. The rector of the propaedeutic seminary was traveling with two young students to thecapital Luanda, about 750 miles away. Having already covered around 450 miles, their vehicle lost a front wheel, came off the road and crashed headlong into a tree. Both the rector and the two young students were killed on the spot. Bishop Martín Lasarte is still shaken to the core by this disaster. ...
Four Motorcycles for Priests in Burkina Faso
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The Diocese of Tenkodogo was founded just 13 years ago and is therefore still slowly becoming established. It covers an area of just under 4,000 square miles, which is bigger than many small countries (such as Lebanon, for instance). But so far, it has only 12 parishes, comparable in size to many European dioceses, and only 200,000 Catholics, who are widely scattered and ministered to by a total of 35 priests. The priests must inevitably travel long distances in order to reach the villages within their respective parishes. And needless to say, some of these outposts are extremely ...
Mass Stipends for Priests in Colombia
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Ever since the mid-1960s, there has been violent conflict in Colombia. During this time, around 6 million people were uprooted from their homes, and around 200,000 were killed. A further 60,000 people are still registered as missing. Despite a peace accord in 2016, many areas of the country remain controlled by armed groups, and the violence has, in fact, escalated since last year. In the more rural regions, the growing of coca for the drug trade has all but wiped out the traditional agricultural cultivation. The situation is also exacerbated by a large influx of immigrants from neighboring Venezuela, thereby further intensifying the people‘s poverty. For ...
Psychological Training for Priests in Ukraine
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Whereas in the early days of the war, the emphasis was on direct material support for refugee families, who desperately needed to be housed, fed, and given medical care, it is now increasingly shifting to the need for psychological and spiritual support for the many people who have suffered deep emotional trauma as a result of the frightful things they have experienced. About 80 percent of the Ukrainian people have suffered some form of trauma, according to Major Archbishop Sviatoslav Shevchuk, the head of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church. Often, it is the priests who are the first and sometimes ...
Support for the Life and Apostolate of 54 Sisters in Ukraine
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The congregation of the Holy Family has 54 sisters in Ukraine. They have nine convents altogether and perform a range of different duties, including running an orphanage, a retreat house, and a center offering psychological and spiritual help and accompaniment to those in need. They also work as catechists and sacristans in the parishes, while some work in the hospitals or care for handicapped children. Three of the sisters are lecturers at the Catholic University in Lviv. And since the ...
Mass Stipends for Missionaries in Ethiopia
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Ethiopia is a multi-ethnic state. In the Horn of Africa, no fewer than 80 different ethnic groups live together, speaking as many different languages. And Christianity in Ethiopia has almost 2,000 years of history. Roughly 45 percent of the population belongs to the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church, whereas Catholic Christianity is still relatively young in the country, and Catholics today account for an extreme minority (just one percent) of its 112 million people. Yet while Christianity in Ethiopia has ...
Help to Repair and Extend a Church in Zambia
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The Spiritans, or Holy Ghost Missionaries, have been working in Zambia since 1971. The congregation sends its priests wherever pastoral work is particularly difficult, especially in remote and underdeveloped regions. In the Diocese of Ndola, a new parish was recently established in the village of Baluba, which is under the care of the Spiritan Fathers. The number of believers is growing rapidly in this overwhelmingly rural region, and many people there are very involved in the Church. But their modest ...
Help for the Training of Nine Seminarians in Burkina Faso
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Ever since the end of 2015, northern and eastern Burkina Faso have been the focus of violent Islamist terrorism. Today, two-thirds of the West African nation is suffering from this terrorism, and two million people have been forced to flee their homes. In 2019, attackers began deliberately targeting the Christian faithful and their churches. And the violence of the jihadist attackers against priests, religious, and ordinary Christian faithful has steadily increased in intensity ever since. Yet despite this threat to ...