Today is a Day of Celebration
Today is a day of celebration: Celebrating the inauguration of the newly restored church of Haret Saraya, destroyed by jihadists in 2012 Marmarita/Königstein. – Evening is falling in the Valley of the Christians. From its high vantage point the Crusader fortress, the Crac des Chevaliers, built in the 11th-12th century, looks [...]
In Aleppo, a teenager drew on his faith to make it through the darkest days of the civil war
Piter Essa, 17, graduated from High School in Aleppo, Syria, this spring. Piter, who is Syriac Orthodox, recounts to Aid to the Church in Need (ACN) some of his painful experiences of the fighting of the past eight years: “I’ve survived this awful war, and I live my life like [...]
Summer camps in Syria – “She felt her heart had begun to beat again”
In the course of 2019 the international Catholic pastoral charity and pontifical foundation Aid to the Church in Need (ACN International) is supporting over 40 different projects for summer activities on behalf of the Christian communities in countries where they are a minority, experience discrimination or suffering as a result [...]
A mother, her son killed in the war, finds strength in her faith
Syria: a mother, her son killed in the war, finds strength in her faith: ‘our roots must be planted in God’ Yolla Ghandour, a Syrian-Armenian Catholic and mother of three, lives in Aleppo. She saw some of the worst fighting of the Syrian civil war. She talked to Aid to [...]
Syria: A vocation marked by the resurrection
I was born again after eight years! - the story of Fadi - a Syrian called to the service. Irmina Nockiewicz Almost 8 years after the outbreak of a devastating civil war, Fadi, a young Syrian man, relates to ACN how he heard the call to service. It was the [...]
SYRIA: The Bleeding Wound of Emigration
The number of Christians in Aleppo fell dramatically during the war, from 180,000 before the war to 32,000 today. Joseph Tobji, Maronite Archbishop of Aleppo and shepherd of a small community of about 400 families, spoke with Pierre Macqueron of the pontifical foundation Aid to the Church in Need (ACN). [...]
MIRIAM, The voice of Aleppo
In Aleppo, the number of Christians shrank fivefold during the war. Now the economic crisis and the lack of professional employment opportunities are a source of anguish, especially for the young. The performers are a choir of 60 or so children and young people, supported by five musicians. It is [...]
In Aleppo, Syria, ‘the pain, poverty, and hunger we’ve endured are enough’
ANTOINE HADDAD, 19, a member of the Armenian Catholic Church, grew up at the height of the Syrian civil war, amidst chaos and violence. The first bombings of Aleppo destroyed parts of his home. He gives a glimpse of his suffering in this interview with Aid to the Church in [...]