On a recent trip to Ukraine, Magda Kaczmarek remembers a priest telling her that even though half of the church’s parishioners have fled, they maintain about the same number of faithful, with the addition of internally displaced Ukrainians — including non-Catholics.
The president of Caritas Ukraine is an American citizen — the daughter of Ukrainian refugees — and yet she has not left Ukraine, even after the U.S. government advised Americans to leave.
Religious freedom advocates are confused over the omission of Nigeria from a U.S. State Department list of countries known for having the world’s worst attacks on Christians. “We’re baffled,” said Ed Clancy, of Brooklyn-based Aid to the Church in Need-U.S. “By every single measure, Nigeria has gotten worse.”
Prosecutors in Nigeria claim a Catholic journalist violated cybercrime laws when he wrote about complaints that the government failed to arrest any suspects in the Oct. 29 murders of 38 Christians in southern Kaduna State.
Christians of different denominations will participate in the International Day of Prayer (IDOP) for persecuted Christians. It will yet be another opportunity to intercede on behalf of the estimated 260 million believers around the world who are experiencing high to extreme forms of persecution due to their faith.
As the bloody, contentious U.S. evacuation of Afghanistan approached its Aug. 31 deadline, fears rose about the ultimate fate of Catholics and Christians under Taliban rule if they are unable, or unwilling, to flee.
There are an estimated 200 Catholics in Afghanistan — a tiny minority within the minority of around 7,000 Christians — and days after the Taliban took control of the country following the withdrawal of U.S. troops, a papal charity is sounding the alarm over their situation.
When Pope Francis’ eco-encyclical was published in 2015, one aspect of the document that didn’t make waves but was key to implementing his overall vision for environmental reform was his appeal to cleanup cities, making them more organized and sustainable. Now, six years later, this is being implemented in his own backyard.
During the presentation of a report on religious freedom produced by a papal charitable foundation, Asia Bibi, the Pakistani Christian who spent eight years on death row on blasphemy charges, appealed to her country’s government to put an end to this discriminatory law.
Mozambique is experiencing a growing insurgency that is causing “truly indescribable” horror, according to a leading Catholic charity.
