Tag: Aid to the Church in Need

Bernard Toutounji says that Australians need to be aware of how much Christians are suffering for their faith in the Holy Land and countries like Syria and Nigeria. 

Christians in southern Lebanon face a deepening crisis as war intensifies and displacement grows. While many long to remain, the loss of hope is driving a new wave of emigration.

Aid to the Church in Need is calling for urgent support as war and displacement deepen across the Middle East.

As the scourge of war spreads across the Middle East, including Lebanon, the ones paying the ultimate price are the innocent men, women and children who want to live in peace, said Melkite Greek Catholic Archbishop Georges Iskandar of Tyre.

There are high hopes a successful Catholic-led Christmas festival held in Sydney’s CBD in solidarity with the world’s most vulnerable persecuted Christians will become an annual highlight on the city’s calendar.

Australia and New Zealand lit up 15 churches in red to raise awareness and pray for persecuted Christians on 19 November. St Mary’s Cathedral and Saint Maroun's Maronite Cathedral were among the churches marking the day of remembrance, lighting their façades in bright red. 

As night falls across continents on 19 November, more than 600 churches and landmarks will light up in red, reminding the world that Christian persecution remains a stark global reality. This is Red Wednesday, the focal point of Red Week, the annual international campaign led by the pontifical charity Aid to the Church in Need 15-23 November.

It's a stark reality that – no matter how many times it's repeated – never loses the power to shock: The 20th century produced double the number of Christian martyrs than all the previous nineteen centuries put together.

President Trump has threatened to rain fire and brimstone on Nigeria for allowing Christians to be slaughtered.

Continued attacks on Christians and other minorities in Syria at the hands of Islamists, some affiliated with the new Syrian interim government, call into question whether the war-torn country can rebuild without first securing its people.

The world is paying less attention to one of the “greatest human-rights crises of our time”, says Aid to the Church in Need national director of Australia and New Zealand, Bernard Toutounji. 

Religious freedom is severely restricted in 62 of the world's 196 countries, affecting around 5.4 billion people; "in other words, almost two-thirds of the world's population lives in countries where serious violations of religious freedom take place," Cardinal Parolin said.