The Vatican last Saturday urged Iraqi President Barham Saleh to guarantee the safety of Christians and ensure they have a future place in the war-battered country. President Saleh met with Pope Francis, the Vatican secretary of state and foreign minister during back-to-back audiences on Saturday 25th January, his second visit to the Vatican. The Holy...
Since May 2019, Asia Bibi the Pakistani Christian woman accused of blasphemy who spent 8 years in prison has been a refugee in Canada and wants to continue helping Christians falsely accused of blasphemy. At the end of next month, the book “Finally Free” by the French journalist Anne-Isabelle Tollet , which recounts the captivity...
An upsurge of Boko Haram attacks in Cameroon since the start of 2020 has caused terror among local inhabitants – according to a Bishop in the country. Bishop Bruno Ateba of Maroua-Mokolo, northern Cameroon, told Aid to the Church in Need (ACN) that 13 attacks over the last fortnight were the work of the extremist...
“I’ll be there”. Despite the ongoing civil war the apostolic vicar of Tripoli, Bishop George Bugeja, will be in Bari. Religious leaders from countries overlooking the great sea will be participating in the “Mediterranean: frontier of peace”, a meeting being promoted by the CEI to be held in Puglia from 19 to 23 February. The...
A potentially historic development may be about to happen in the case of Huma Younus, and by implication, of all Christian girls abducted and forcibly converted to Islam in Pakistan. As reported to ACN last week (on 16 January) by Tabassum Yousaf, the lawyer representing this 14 year-old Catholic girl, the two judges of the...
One of the four seminarians kidnapped after an armed group attack on the Good Shepherd Major Seminary, Kaduna on the night of 8 January, has been released last weekend by the kidnappers because he was quite ill. The other three seminarians remain in captivity. The freed seminarian, who has not yet been identified, was found...
Religious Sisters in Burkina Faso have told how they are risking their lives to provide food and sanctuary to hundreds of people – women, the elderly and children – fleeing the violence engulfing the country. Sister Pauline and Sister Marie Bernadette, current and former General Superior of the Sisters of the Immaculate Conception, gave Catholic...
The Republic of South Sudan and the South Sudan Opposition Movements Alliance (SSOMA) have signed a peace declaration in Rome that takes effect from today January 15. In peace talks in Rome facilitated by the Catholic community of Sant’Egidio, opposition groups and the South Sudanese government recommitted to cease hostilities, pursue political dialogue, and allow...
Cardinal Luis Antonio Tagle of Manila led thousands of devotees in prayers for peace as tensions mount between the United States and Iran following the assassination of a top Iranian general. A few days after Iran warned of retaliation for the January 3 US airstrike that killed General Qassem Soleimani, the cardinal said that “a...
An Assyrian priest and two other Assyrian Christians were arrested Friday in Turkey and slapped with terror charges for allegedly offering bread and water to Kurdish militants who visited his monastery, according to reports. Priest Sefer Bileçen of the Mor Yakup Monastery in southeast Turkey was detained last Thursday, according to Mezopotamya news agency in...
