Yet despite the efforts of the Islamist group to eradicate the Christian population, they are slowly rebuilding their presence in the area.

"Words cannot describe what we experienced ten years ago. ISIS tried to eradicate us, but they failed", said Syriac Catholic Archbishop Nizar Semaan of Adiabene in Northern Iraq.

"The people here are like olive trees. You can cut them, burn them, but after 10 or 20 years, they will continue to give fruit. They tried everything, but we remain, and as a Church we do everything to give a sign of hope," he said during an online conference organised by the international Catholic charity Aid to the Church in Need (ACN).

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Maria Lozano of the pontifical charity Aid to the Church in Need (ACN) described the phenomenon as "a beautiful message of faith."

In a conversation with Crux, Lozano said she has had conversations with clerics in Burkina Faso who tell her that the people know that "their lives are in danger" and are, therefore, more motivated to revert to Christianity as a preparation for eternal life should the worst happen.

"They face terrorism, so they believe the best way out is to become Christians," Lozano told Crux.

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Catholic charity Aid to the Church in Need (ACN) will be helping to create a WYD experience as close to the main event as possible for those unable to travel to Lisbon because of financial and other difficulties.

More than 1,000 young people will be attending the gathering on Mount Lebanon at the same time as Pope Francis is meeting pilgrims in Portugal.

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Aid to the Church in Need (ACN) has released its latest edition of the Religious Freedom Report, shedding light on the increasing persecution faced by individuals and communities worldwide.

The report, published every two years since 1999 by the international Catholic foundation ACN, remains the sole non-governmental source covering religious freedom across all faiths.

Compared to the previous report, the situation has worsened in 47 countries, while only nine have shown signs of improvement.

Religious minorities bear the brunt of this oppression, sometimes facing a genuine risk of extinction.

Terrorism, cultural suppression, economic discrimination and legal constraints create a suffocating environment in their homelands.

However, some majority religious groups also endure persecution, as evidenced in Nigeria and Nicaragua.

Offenders operate with impunity

The instigators behind these violations range from armed terror organisations to authoritarian governments. Disturbingly, these offenders often operate with impunity, rarely facing justice or international condemnation for their actions.

Africa accounts for half of the countries with the most severe religious freedoms. According to the report, this is due to the spread of jihadist groups across the continent and the expansion of "opportunist caliphates".

Asia, too, presents a worrying situation, with China's continued attempt to exert totalitarian control over all aspects of society including religion.

India exhibits state-sponsored ethno-religious nationalism, which manifests in harsh anti-conversion laws among other forms of repression.

While the focus often falls on Africa and Asia, many western nations display concerning trends. The rise of cancel culture and increasing social and political pressure to conform to ideological norms raises alarm bells.

Regina Lynch, the newly appointed executive president of ACN International, emphasises that the report's primary goal is to inspire action and support for those enduring religious persecution.

Lynch highlights the power of prayer, sharing information, advocating for victims, engaging with politicians and staying informed about realities in different parts of the world as crucial steps toward effecting change.

"The ACN Religious Freedom in the World Report seeks only to provide information and analysis about the abuse of this fundamental human right worldwide. It is a tool. The tool is only as good as those who take it up, share it with others and work to effect change," Lynch asserts.

Sources

ACN International

La Croix International

CathNews New Zealand

"The problem is becoming more acute day by day," the priest said in an interview with the international Catholic charity Aid to the Church in Need (ACN).

According to Emmanuel Yousaf, those most affected are members of the Christian and Hindu minorities in the provinces of Sindh and Punjab.

There are laws against child marriages and forced marriages, but they are not implemented: "One reason is that all this happens mainly to Christians and Hindus. The pressure comes from Pakistani society and the Muslim side. They put pressure on the families and the girls."

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A 7.8 magnitude earthquake rocked both countries last week, toppling buildings and killing tens of thousands.

Hearing the call, the pontifical foundation Aid to the Church in Need (ACN) will be providing at least NZ$800,000 of immediate aid to Christians in Syria.

After many years of war and the economic collapse of Syria, ACN had projects in place and partners on the ground in cities such as Aleppo and Lattakia. Both cities have considerable Christian communities. Both were badly affected by the quake.

ACN is concentrating its efforts on helping people get back to their homes as quickly as possible.

"It's a desperate humanitarian situation," says Chaldean Catholic Bishop Antoine Audo of Aleppo and former president of Caritas Syria.

Audo says even before the quake, the Aleppo two million people faced electricity and fuel shortages.

"There is no electricity, there is no fuel, the winter is very harsh, and it is cold inside and outside. There is so much poverty," Audo said.

"It's not easy. The situation is really terrible."

Many people say that even compared to the 12 years of war they have just endured, the earthquake was more terrifying.

Caritas Turkey is also working on the ground.

Besides distributing hot meals and clothes, it has opened a listening centre hotline to provide help to victims, in partnership with the local authorities.

Uyghurs also volunteering

A group of Uyghur volunteers in Istanbul were early responders to the unfolding humanitarian crisis. They drove for 24 hours to assist in relief efforts.

One of the 30-member team's key goals was to help Uyghurs living in Turkey affected by the disaster.

Many Uyghurs who have fled China's crackdown on them in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region - which Uyghurs prefer to call East Turkestan - have resettled in Turkey. There, linguistic, cultural and religious similarities make for an easier transition.

The team was sent "to show that the East Turkestan people and Turkish people are together in thick and thin," said Hidayettullah Oghuzhan, chairman of the Union of East Turkestan Organisations in Istanbul.

Counting the numbers in Turkey and Syria

Officials say over 8,000 people had died in Turkey alone; more than 22,000 are injured.

Around 8,000 have been rescued from the collapsed buildings.

A state of emergency has been declared for three months across ten cities.

Nearly 3,000 deaths were reported in both government and rebel-held areas in Syria - but confirming casualties in Syria is difficult.

Source

• Radio Free Asia
• UCA News
• Catholic News Agency

"Our hearts break at the death and destruction we are seeing on our television screens and in our newspapers," they wrote last week during the assembly of the Federation of Catholic Bishops Conferences of Oceania in Fiji.

"We know that God is close to those that suffer. We pray that your people sense the love and care of their brothers and sisters around the world, including from Oceania.

"One of the key themes of our Federation ... is the connectedness of human suffering and the suffering of our world. We have seen in your countries how natural disasters can wreak such pain and anguish, with thousands of lives lost.

"The Catholic Church has established appeals to raise funds to support the ongoing efforts for rescue and recovery, and we will encourage the faithful in our region to respond generously.

"The Church is also providing human resources on the ground to respond to immediate needs through our aid agencies.

"Be assured of our ongoing prayers and our attention as your people recover from this tragedy."

The huge earthquakes have killed tens of thousands, and destroyed homes, businesses and infrastructure throughout Turkey and Syria. Urgent and ongoing humanitarian aid is needed.

One minute worse than 12 years of war

"Less than one minute was worse than 12 years of war," says a survivor from Syria.

Even though Syria has been at war for almost 12 years, for many people in Aleppo and in other cities that were affected, the devastating earthquake of 6 February was more traumatic.

"If you ask the people of Aleppo about the war they lived through, they express their feelings of pain, fear, despair about the future, loss of safety, etc. They use many different expressions to express the 12-year war.

"But if you ask them about the earthquake that they were exposed to, the answer is just one word: horror", says a Catholic religious sister who lives and works in Aleppo.

Catholic aid

• The main Catholic hospital of St Louis in Aleppo withstood the quakes and has been helping survivors.
• Catholic charity Aid to the Church in Need (ACN) says it will be providing at least half a million Euros of immediate aid to Christians in Syria.
• Among the Catholic organisations working on the ground in Syria providing relief are Franciscans in Lattakia, the Armenian Orthodox in Aleppo, the Institute of the Incarnate Word and the St Vincent de Paul Society.
• Many Catholic churches are providing shelter for the homeless.
• The Syrian Synod of Catholic bishops has assembled a team of engineers to assess and price the damage to Christian families' houses. ACN says it hopes to be able to help with this.

Source

• Catholic Weekly
• ACN International
• ACN International

The trauma is a result of the huge explosion that caused at least 180 deaths and 6,000 injuries.

Many of Beirut's children are in need of psychological support, according to a delegation from the heart of the recovery effort.

Speaking to Catholic charity Aid to the Church in Need (ACN) in a live link to Beirut watched by hundreds on Wednesday (19th August), Youmna Yammine, part of the Youth of Hope group, said the people of Beirut need psychological, spiritual and emotional assistance.

"Help is also being given for mental health because some people need psychological attention at the moment, especially children."

"Here we can see volunteers and NGOs trying to help the children and the adults who went through a traumatic experience. The help is being done by the people, for the people, through NGOs and the help is being done by volunteers."

Yammine says Lebanon's many recent crises have drained its people.

"We had the depreciation of the currency, this affected the income of the Lebanese people, for what used to be a good income is now basically nothing. Prices are rocketing."

"After that came the pandemic ... lots of people have lost their jobs…On August 4th came the explosion - the cherry on the top."

"Lebanese people are really tired," Yammine says.

"They need psychological support and religious support because it has been a lot to deal with in a very short period of time."

AACN project partner Monsignor Toufic Bou-Hadir says despite all the suffering in Beirut there is a lot of hope.

"The convents and churches opened their doors to receive the displaced people to say to them that in spite of this catastrophe, God is here, God is love, and hope is here," he says.

Bou-Hadir also spoke of the help Beirut has received from all over the world, saying: "God always shows us with this solidarity that the light of hope always shines. Beirut will be reborn."

"Thank you to ACN… and all of the benefactors all over the world. We really appreciate this solidarity, this brotherhood, this friendship which lasts forever."

The National Director of ACN (UK), says ACN's supporters responded to the Beirut explosion with an outpouring of generosity.

"We have been overwhelmed by the initial response by our benefactors from Aid to the Church in Need."

Source

• Aid to the Church in Need
• Independent Catholic News
• Wikipedia
• Image: Mirage News

Medicine, clothes, blankets and food are in huge demand.

Monsignor Toufic Bou-Hadir, director of the Maronite Patriarchal Commission for Youth, is praising the efforts of the young Christian volunteers "amazing" response to what he calls "an apocalypse" which saw 300,000 families displaced.

Other help includes an emergency food package valued at 250,000 euros, which Catholic charity Aid to the Church in Need (ACN) rushed to Beirut on Wednesday - the day after the port-side explosion.

The ACN grant will target poor families worst affected by the blast.

ACN Lebanon expert Father Samer Nassif, said that the Christian zone of Beirut was "completely devastated."

At least 10 churches were destroyed, hundreds of thousands have been left homeless and many others are suffering, with livelihoods "totally destroyed" by the blast.

Bou-Hadir says "in one second, more damage to the Christian quarter of Beirut was done than throughout the long years of the civil war."

"We have to build it again from the ground up."

Pope Francis is among those who have sent cash donations to the devastated Lebanese capital.

He has donated 250,000 euros in aid to the Church in Lebanon to help with recovery efforts.

"This donation is intended as a sign of His Holiness's attention and closeness to the affected population and of his fatherly closeness to people in serious difficulty," the Vatican says.

Francis' donation will go to the apostolic nunciature of Beirut "to meet the needs of the Lebanese Church in these moments of difficulty and suffering," according to the Vatican.

Church leaders have warned both Beirut and the nation of Lebanon on are on the brink of total collapse. They are pleading with the international community for aid.

Both Bou-Hadir and fellow Beirut ACN project partner Sister Hanan Youssef are highlighting the toll of the explosion on the people, saying they are totally dependent on international aid as Lebanon's economic crisis had rendered the country helpless.

"I survived 15 years of civil war and yet I could not imagine such a horrible thing happening to our people," Hanan says.

"More than ever, the people are in need of help. We are so grateful for the prayers and support of our dear friends at ACN."

After the long-running economic crisis and the coronavirus, Lebanon is ill-equipped to deal with the emergency. It urgently needs international help for people's basic needs.

In "An Appeal to the Countries of the World" sent last week, Maronite Patriarch Cardinal Bechara Boutros Rai, President of the Conference of Patriarchs and Catholic Bishops of Lebanon, said: "Beirut is a devastated city."

"Beirut, the fiancée of the East and the beacon of the West, is wounded."

"It's a war scene - there is destruction and desolation in all its streets, its districts and its houses."

The Pope and ACN are asking all to pray for the victims, their families and for the Lebanese people.

Source

• Aid to the Church in Need
• Aid to the Church in Need
• Catholic News Agency
• Image: RNZ

The Maronite Cathedral of Saint Elijah has special significance for Maronite Catholics in the area.

After lying in ruins for several years, Christmas Mass was celebrated in the cathedral in 2016 amid debris and ash.

The war-damaged cathedral has now been fully renovated with the help of the Catholic charity Aid to the Church in Need (ACN). It was formally reopened July 20.

Maronite Archbishop Joseph Tobji said the moment had both symbolic and practical meaning.

"It is a message to the parishioners and Christians in Aleppo and the world that we are still in this country despite our dwindling numbers, and the restoration of the cathedral is proof of this," he said during the reopening.

Being determined to stay "is a ‘mission' and not just because we were born here, or because we are obliged to stay here against our will," he explained.

The decision to restore the cathedral, "was self-evident, just like a family who wanted to renovate our only house that brought us together" as Maronites have no other place to gather together for worship, Tobji says.

Once the fighting in Aleppo was over, Tobji said he came back to the cathedral and saw a caved in ceiling, collapsed dome, scorched walls and shards of wood and plaster were on the floor where pews and statues once stood.

"I said to myself: As we all suffered as human beings, so did the house of God and the house of the congregation."

"This house (the church) played a role in receiving the blows themselves in order to protect the surrounding civilians," so he gave thanks to God, "who uses means that we may not understand for salvation."

Tobji says the project cost over $450,000 all of which was raised and donated by he help of the Catholic charity Aid to the Church in Need (ACN). The charity has funded about 100 additional projects in Syria.

ACN says only about a third of Syria's pre-Civil War 1.5 million Christians remain. In Aleppo, which had around 180,000 Christians, there are currently just 30,000.

Currently in its 10th year, the Civil War has left thousands dead and millions displaced. Millions more are living in poverty.

Source

• Crux Now
• Image: Twitter