The attacks aim to eliminate the threat of Hezbollah strikes on northern Israel.

Bernard Toutounji, National Director of Aid for the Church in Need (ACN) in Australia and New Zealand, says the Church is struggling to support the million people who have fled their homes in southern Lebanon.

Beirut, Mount Lebanon and Lebanon's northern regions in particular are bearing the brunt of the internally displaced refugees.

The pontifical charity has announced an international emergency campaign to raise at least 1 million Euros (about $1,8 million NZD), Toutounji says. It will help the Catholic Church in Lebanon cope with the tremendous challenges Christians are suffering.

What the Church is doing to help

The Catholic Church has already sprung into action in Lebanon's northern regions, as it fulfils its Biblical mandate to help people in need. It hopwa donations will help relieve the desperate situation.

The Church has opened facilities such as parish halls and retreat houses to all those fleeing the most dangerous areas, Toutounji says.

Everyone is welcome, regardless of religious or ethnic affiliation.

ACN has already reached out to the seven dioceses and five religious congregations most directly involved in relief efforts.

Toutounji says the money ACN raises will be used to address a variety of needs, including food, sanitary products, mattresses and covers, medication and other essentials.

Many of the Christians in southern Lebanon are farmers. The attacks have prevented them from harvesting their olive and tobacco crops, leaving them without any income.

Children's education has been directly affected, with Catholic schools needing financial help Toutounji says. He explains that while most Catholic schools have opened for online classes, many parents in war-affected regions are unlikely to find work and they will struggle to pay tuition fees.

Critical situation

Although the crisis is affecting the whole country, the worst areas are in the border regions between Israel and Lebanon. Christians are a predominant group in this area.

ACN says most families are being separated.

Many mothers and children are sheltering in Church facilities or with relatives and, despite exposing themselves to danger, fathers often stay in their family homes to protect their property from being stolen.

"Lebanon has been going from crisis to crisis over the past decades, suffering from political instability, an influx of refugees from regional wars, an economic meltdown, the Beirut Port explosion which levelled large parts of the city, and now these attacks from Israel" ACN says.

"Despite all this, the Church has continued to serve the people, providing material and spiritual support at every turn. ACN has stood by our project partners in Lebanon, and we will not abandon them now as they face another hour of need.

"We are confident that our friends and benefactors will understand the urgency of supporting the Church in Lebanon to carry out God's work."

Source

• Aid to the Church in Need

"I couldn't pray because of the shock I was in. Whenever I opened my mouth to pray, words failed me. All I could say was ‘Lord, have mercy.'"

ACN's report, titled "Nigeria: A Bleeding Wound," shares some of the firsthand testimonies of Catholic faithful who have survived torture, kidnappings, and massacres at the hands of Nigerian terrorists.

In May 2021, Awesuh and 10 of his parishioners were kidnapped from St. John Paul II Parish in Nigeria's Kaduna state by radical Islamic Fulani attackers.

Awesuh was alone in his room at 11 p.m. when he heard gunshots. Terrified, he turned out the lights and waited.

"I stood there confused, not knowing what to do, as I felt completely lost. There was a knock on the door. My legs went cold and my body stiff. I was sweating profusely," Awesuh said. "They broke down the door and forced themselves inside. One of the men pushed me to the floor, tied me up, and flogged me mercilessly."

Awesuh and his parishioners were marched barefoot through the wilderness for three days. They were then held captive in harsh conditions for more than a month until a large ransom could be paid.

Eventually, Awesuh and his parishioners were ransomed, but not before three parishioners were shot dead during a rescue attempt.

"I narrowly escaped death," Awesuh said. Yet, he said, there are many priests there who have not been as fortunate.

"I know of so many priests kidnapped before and after me who were killed even after a ransom was paid," Awesuh said.

In 2022 alone more than 5,000 Christians were killed in Nigeria, according to religious freedom watchdog Open Doors International.

As a Catholic priest in Nigeria, Awesuh faces some of the highest risks of kidnapping, torture, and murder of any person in the world.

"Kidnappings are a hallmark of terrorist organizations in Nigeria … and clergy are increasingly being targeted," the new ACN report said.

With over 30 million faithful, Catholics make up a large minority in Nigeria, accounting for approximately 14.82% of the country's population.

Yet, violent persecution in Nigeria has become a growing concern in recent years, according to many religious freedom organizations, including ACN.

Both priests and lay faithful are regularly targeted by Islamic terror groups such as Boko Haram, the Islamic State West Africa Province (ISWAP), and militant Fulani. Continue reading

Nigeria led the list as "one of the most dangerous countries in which to serve the Church" with the brutal murder of four priests last year, the Catholic Peace Broadcasting Corporation (CPBC) of South Korea reported on Feb 7.

The report uses data collected by Aid to the Church in Need (ACN), a papal charity recording persecution of Christians globally, published in December.

Mexico stood second with drug cartels killing three priests followed by the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) which saw two priests shot dead during the same period.

ACN appealed to all the nations involved to show restraint and refrain from harming the members of the clergy serving in their territories.

Read More

To date, more than 1300 people have died, and at least 5700 have been injured, according to information from the Haitian civil protection agency on 16 Aug.

Haiti has suffered multiple crises recently. It is barely a month since the assassination of the President of the Republic, Jovenel Moïse.

In the past 2 years, a wave of violence and abductions have afflicted the country and droughts have plunged the rural population into deeper poverty.

"On top of all this, the earthquake has inflicted on thousands of families a situation worse than all the rest. It is an impossible situation. The people are in total shock," commented the executive president of pontifical foundation ACN International, Dr Thomas Heine-Geldern.

ACN is in contact with churches in the most seriously affected dioceses. They are assessing where the greatest need lies in the immediate aftermath.

Catholic Relief Services (CRS) is sending teams to provide clean water, sanitation, shelter and emergency supplies.

"It is quite possible that Haiti is going to need more help than ever before," said Akim Kikonda, CRS' country representative in Haiti.

"Prior to the earthquake, people here were already struggling to make ends meet," said Kikonda.

"The area was slowly recovering from the devastation caused by Hurricane Matthew in 2016. But drought and two recent tropical storms have largely destroyed the little livelihoods people had been able to restore. After Saturday's earthquake, it is only going to get worse."

Fiammetta Cappellini, a Haiti-based country representative for AVSI, told CNS that she recently travelled from Port-au-Prince to Les Cayes. She estimated that some 30% of the buildings were severely impacted by the earthquake.

"The Catholic community here has experienced a lot of churches and Catholic schools in the area that went down. That worries us a lot, because education is maybe the only way out for this country. Now again, we face a closed-school situation impossible to manage," Cappellini said. "And so this is a very hard (situation) long term."

AVSI, she said, will focus on providing materials for temporary housing and prioritize pregnant women with children and women with large families.

"We plea to you to pray for the country, to pray for all those who have lost their loved ones, those who have been wounded and those who have lost everything. May Our Lady of Perpetual Succour, Patroness and Protector of Haiti, bring them all support and consolation," Dr Thomas Heine-Geldern appealed.

Sources

ACN International

Crux

Reliefweb

Officials say at least 171 people have died since the flooding began last week. Many more are injured and 155 are missing.

Images of Germany's flooded villages and towns have prompted international aid agencies to offer compassion and concern.

Agencies including Catholic-run charities like Aid to the Church in Need, Misereor, and Caritas Internationalis are touching base with their 'related' German organisations.

Messages through them from developing countries like Cuba, Honduras, Zimbabwe and Mali show their support for one of Europe's most prosperous nations.

"This solidarity is touching and perhaps a small consolation for the people who lost loved ones as well as their belongings in the flood," says Florian Ripka, managing director of Aid to the Church in Need Germany.

She has received messages from Lebanon, Ukraine and Papua New Guinea. "Even if our project partners cannot help materially, they are close to the people with thoughts and prayers," she says.

Misereor, the German bishops' organisation for development cooperation, is receiving similar messages. "It shows us that solidarity is not a one-way street," Misereor says.

Many messages mention concern that climate-related hazards can strike with great force even in temperate zones.

The message from executive director of Caritas India, Paul Moonjely, says Germany's deadly floods are a "wake-up call" to start tackling the urgent climate problem vigorously.

He also wrote of his gratitude to Germany, saying: "People in Germany have always been helpful and willing to reach out to suffering populations around the world, especially in India."

They want to give something of this "deep feeling" back to the Germans, Moonjely's says.

Islamic associations in Germany such as the Turkish-Islamic Union for Religious Affairs and the Islamic Relief asked their members for donations.

They reminded Muslims that the recent pilgrimage to Mecca and the July 19-23 observance of Eid al-Adha, the Islamic feast of sacrifice, call for mercy toward all people.

The commissioner for environmental and climate issues at the German Catholic bishops' conference, Bishop Rolf Lohmann, says the deadly floods, which have claimed more than 200 lives across Europe, are a "sign of a change in the climate and the environment."

After the heat and drought of past years, "the inconceivable catastrophe of heavy rain and floods" was an illustration of climate change, he says.

Besides immediate emergency aid, long-term measures to protect against floods were needed, Lohmann says.

His diocese in Muenster in the state of North Rhine-Westphalia sustained widespread damage.

There also is a need for "rapid and efficient action against climate change," Lohmann says.

"If we do not act decisively now, it will be too late," he explains, saying the responsibility to act falls on individuals as well as governments.

Lohmann is calling for the wider use of renewable energy, product procurement based on ecological and social criteria, reducing waste and environmentally friendly forms of transport.

He is also demanding that social equality be considered when implementing environmentally sound measures.

They must be affordable for all social groups, he stresses.

At the same time, he says it is important to adhere to ethical criteria in financial investments.

Source

• NCR
• The Scotsman

The RFR also says that persecution of faith groups has drastically increased in more than 95 percent of the world's worst-offending countries.

The report was produced by the international Catholic charity Aid to the Church in Need (ACN).

Over the past two years, it found that oppression against vulnerable faith communities has increased in 25 of the 26 countries listed in the survey's worst (‘red') category.

RFR, which covers all 196 countries worldwide, traced the rise of transnational Islamist networks. This includes an online "cyber-caliphate", which is "expanding globally and is now a tool of online recruitment and radicalisation".

This core finding of the report describes how "Islamist terrorists employ sophisticated digital technologies to recruit, radicalise and attack". They have the aim of creating what the report calls "transcontinental caliphates".

In addition to Islamist extremism, the report identifies principal protagonists of persecution, highlighting increased crackdowns by authoritarian regimes (eg North Korea). It also points to majoritarian religious nationalists' persecution of minorities in India and Burma (Myanmar).

The Chinese Communist Party is keeping religious groups in line with the help of 626 million AI-enhanced surveillance cameras and smartphone scanners.

Covid-19 was also to blame for increased persecution, according to the RFR. It found that societal prejudice against minorities, including in Turkey and Pakistan, meant that some faith groups were denied food and other vital aid.

In the West, the report says, there has been a rise in "polite persecution". This phrase was coined by Pope Francis to describe how new cultural norms and values have consigned religions to what the RFR calls "the quiet obscurity of the individual conscience". This makes it more difficult for people of faith to access the public square.

Regarding positive developments, the RFR highlights progress in inter-religious dialogue. It notes the Vatican's role, particularly the declaration signed by the Pope and Sunni leader Grand Imam Ahamad Al-Tayyib of Al-Azar.

Reflecting on the gravity of the RFR's findings, ACN International President Dr Thomas Heine-Geldern stated: "Regrettably, despite the - albeit important - UN initiatives and the staffing of religious freedom ambassadorships, to date, the international community's response to violence based on religion and religious persecution, in general, can be categorised as too little, too late."

The report concluded that violations of religious freedom occur in almost one-third of the world's countries (62 out of 196). Many any of them the most populous nations such as China, India and Pakistan.

Sources

Independent Catholic News

Reuters

Aid to the Church in Need

The charity says it is unable to make money transfers to the local Church despite humanitarian exemptions to sanctions against Syria.

ACNs call for help came on the 10th anniversary of the war in Syria.

"It is our duty to provide help to the suffering civil population of Syria and especially to the rapidly dwindling Christian minority," ACN International's president, Thomas Heine-Geldern said.

"In their name, I beg you to implement the existing international legal framework, which allows humanitarian exceptions to the embargo."

Heine-Geldern said although Western sanctions against Syria contained humanitarian exemptions, aid agencies were unable to take advantage of them.

"Although the sanctions foresee exceptions for money transfers related to humanitarian help, it does not work," he said.

According to Heine-Geldern, the European IBAN and American SWIFT banking codes block transfers bearing any reference to Syria and any Syrian city.

"Consequently, it becomes almost impossible for charitable organisations to transfer funds for humanitarian purposes to meet the needs of the suffering population."

Money transfers are of vital importance.

This is because Church institutions and NGOs on their own cannot ship the desperately needed humanitarian assistance to the almost 14 million Syrians in need it,

Instead, ACN usually sends money for its counterparts to buy food, medical help and clothing locally.

These difficulties have led Heine-Geldern to call on the community of states to instruct banks to accept money transfers for humanitarian aid, as already provided for in the exceptions to the existing sanctions.

Besides the obstacles preventing the transfer of money, Heine-Geldern says there are inherent problems in importing humanitarian goods into Syria.

"To apply for permits, our partners often have to overcome insurmountable multilingual procedures put in place by the sanction authorities." Permits are necessary even for small amounts of goods and involve high fees, he said.

It is particularly difficult to import 'dual-use' goods that can be used for purposes other than humanitarian ones.

Heine-Geldern said as the interpretation of these provisions is very broad, even the powdered milk urgently needed for undernourished babies and children falls into this category.

He appealed to Western governments to give clearer definitions of permitted and prohibited goods, and remove bureaucratic hurdles to delivering aid.

He proposed "a general license for designated NGOs" as a possible interim solution.

ACN, founded in 1947, has donated almost $50 million to 900 humanitarian and pastoral projects in Syria since war broke out.

Source

• CNA
• Press Release
• Image: The Borgen Project

The Dutch-born priest founded ACN in 1947 and was its leader until his death in 2003 at age 90.

The religious supplement of the German daily Die Welt revealed the accusations against van Straaten after it obtained a copy of a denunciation letter that was sent to ACN in 2010.

In the letter, Father van Straaten is accused of the attempted rape of a 20-year-old ACN female employee in 1973.

Read more

The April 29 event is being organised by Aid to the Church in Need and seeks to "call attention to the drama of anti-Christian persecution".

Continue reading

British peer David Alton said this amounts to 200 million people in 60 countries.

Persecution ranged from murder, rape and torture to repressive laws, discrimination and social exclusion, he said in a Guardian article.

One consequence was "a form of religio-ethnic cleansing of Christian communities", said John Pontifex of Aid to the Church in Need (ACN), a Catholic campaign group that monitors persecution.

"The persecution of Christians is at a level we've not seen for many, many years and the main impact is the migration of Christian people," he said.

"There are huge swaths of the world which are now experiencing a very sharp decline in the number of Christians."

According to the Pew Research Center, Christians face harassment in 102 countries - more than any other religion.

ACN's 2014 report on religious freedom in the world said conditions had deteriorated in 55 countries, and significantly so in six countries: Iraq, Libya, Nigeria, Pakistan, Sudan and Syria.

Although Muslims "also face terrible and systematic persecution . . . and Jewish communities have also suffered increased threats and violence", Christians were by far the most persecuted faith group, the report said.

Open Doors, a global organisation monitoring Christian persecution, conservatively estimated that 4344 Christians were killed for faith-related reasons in 12 months up to November, 2014, and 1062 churches were attacked.

On his recent trip to Latin America, Pope Francis said he was dismayed "to see how in the Middle East and elsewhere in the world many of our brothers and sisters are persecuted, tortured and killed for their faith in Jesus".

He went on: "In this third world war, waged piecemeal, which we are now experiencing, a form of genocide is taking place, and it must end."

Sources

• The Guardian
• The Guardian
• Image: Examiner.com

The international pontifical foundation Aid to the Church in Need and Chaldean Catholic Patriarch Louis Rafael Sako of Iraq appealed to all people of good will to join in.

A statement from Aid to the Church in Need described the Transfiguration as holding out a "sign of hope for humanity".

"It is a source of courage when obstacles appear impossible to surmount; a sign that light is stronger than darkness; and testimony that death can turn into life."

The statement continued that the global day of prayer for peace is meant to be observed in churches and homes across the US.

"The Global Day of Prayer in the midst of so much suffering in Iraq—particularly for the ancient Christian community of Mosul—tells the world at large that US Christians have not forgotten and abandoned their suffering brothers and sisters," the statement added.

Meanwhile, a resolution has been introduced into the United States Congress aimed at protecting persecuted Christians and other minorities in Iraq.

ISIS militants took control of Mosul in June, and later issued an ultimatum to Christians in the city insisting they convert to Islam, pay a tax, or be killed.

Thousands of Christians and other religious minorities fled the city, seeking refuge in villages in the Ninevah Plains and Kurdestan.

"We are witnessing an ongoing crime against humanity," Congressman Jeff Fortenberry of Nebraska said in introducing the resolution.

Currently, the bi-partisan resolution has more than 50 co-sponsors.

If passed, the resolution would call on Congress, the US president and secretary of state, and the UN Security Council, to consider "an urgent international humanitarian intervention to speed assistance to communities facing ferocious ethnic and religious cleansing," Fortenberry explained.

The US Catholic bishops have urged their government to assist Iraqi Christian victims of persecution from ISIS miliants, while France has offered asylum to Iraqi Christians who have fled Mosul.

Sources

• Aid to the Church in Need
• Catholic News Agency
• National Catholic Register
• Image: Terrasanta

"Oppression and exodus now threaten Christianity's status as a worldwide religion."

The Catholic charity, which operates directly under the Holy See, said over the past two years the persecution of Christians has worsened in 20 of the 30 nations it assessed.

"In others where the problems were already extreme, there has been little or no change."

In the Middle East, the charity said, "a Christian exodus of almost biblical proportions now threatens the survival of the Church".

Aid to the Church in Need's media head, John Pontifex, said incidents of persecution are now apparently relentless and worsening: "Churches being burnt, Christians under pressure to convert, mob violence against Christian homes, abduction and rape of Christian girls, anti-Christian propaganda in the media and from government, discrimination in schools and the workplace…the list goes on."

Meanwhile, Vatican correspondent John Allen has said that Christians are currently the most vulnerable minority on earth and massive outside intervention will be needed to stem the rising tide of persecution against them.

In a Zenit interview, he put Christians in the same category as dissident Jews in Soviet Union in the 1960s and 1970s and black

Allen's new book is called The Global War on Christians: Dispatches from the Front Lines of Anti-Christian Persecution.

Citing statistics from the Center for the Study of Global Christianity at Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary in Massachusetts, he said an average of 100,000 Christians have been killed in a "situation of witness" each year for the past decade. That works out at 11 Christians killed somewhere in the world every hour.

Allen said he would like to see a grassroots mobilisation of the Christian consciousness — so there would be "something analogous to what happens in the Jewish world every time there's an anti-Semitic attack someplace".

Sources:

Aid to the Church in Need

Zenit

Image: Spero News

The communist government of the north-east African state, which does not set a fixed period for military service, has kept Church workers and seminarians in the army for more than 15 years in some cases.

The charity Aid to the Church in Need said a local source told it the government "exaggerates the danger of war, as a pretext to keep people in military service".

"In general, military service has led to a situation where there is a shortage of qualified workers in many professions — not just in the Church," the source added.

While conscription has radically reduced the number of pastoral workers in the Church, its charitable activities have also suffered from state interference because the Church has been forbidden to carry out charitable work.

Seminarians were technically exempt from military service between 2008 and 2011 — but reports received by Aid to the Church in Need suggest many of those conscripted in 2008 were still in training camps.

The government has encouraged all Eritreans to own weapons, even priests and housewives. National service is required for all male and female citizens beginning at age 16.

Over 2000 Christians are among those who have refused military service and are imprisoned for their beliefs.

Thousands avoid military service by fleeing the country each year. Eritrea's national soccer team recently defected while on a visit to Uganda, in part because of the compulsory military service, Radio France Internationale reported.

Eritrea gained independence from Ethiopia in 1993 after a 30-year conflict.

Of the 5.2 million people in the country, nearly half the population are Christian. Most of these are Orthodox, with Catholics making up just 4 per cent of the population.

Sources:

Catholic News Agency

Zenit

Image: Catholic News Agency