Church in Need Fact Sheet

ACN Fact Sheet

Religious persecution is a foreign concept for most people living in the United States, but it is a horrifying reality for some 200 million Christians who face violence and even murder for practicing their faith. The United Nations reports that another 350 million Christians experience less extreme forms of oppression, including discrimination, harassment and restrictions on their worship.

Aid to the Church in Need is an international Catholic charity dedicated to alleviating the suffering of those who are persecuted for practicing their faith. With the blessing and guidance of the Holy Father, Aid to the Church in Need supports the pastoral and temporal needs of priests, religious and laity in 145 countries.

Aid to the Church in Need is supported by generous individuals in 18 countries, who entrust it with $120 million each year to realize the spiritual and material needs identified and met by leaders of the suffering Church.

Each of the 5000 projects funded each year by Aid to the Church in Need is an expression of the organization’s commitment to “Keep the Faith Alive” in places where it is put to the test.

Aid to the Church in Need provides hope by meeting needs generally overlooked by other charitable organizations. Specifically, Aid to the Church in Need:
· Rebuilds churches and chapels destroyed by violence or desecrated by hatred, restoring a safe place for the faithful to gather in prayer
· Supports the religious formation of future priests and nuns by providing food, clothing and religious education materials. In fact, one of every seven seminarians in the world is supported by Aid to the Church in Need.
· Offers pastoral and temporal care to contemplative sisters and elderly religious
· Provides bicycles, cars, motorcycles, trucks and mules to help priests and nuns reach remote parishes
· Places Bibles and other devotional materials in the hands of those who want to grow in their faith. Aid to the Church in Need has translated its Child’s Bible into 156 languages and distributed it to 45 million youngsters.
· Gives material aid and pastoral care to refugees and others persecuted for their faith.
· Promotes the Gospel through Christian media by developing and supporting television and radio programming

Aid to the Church in Need began in 1947 as the vision of Father Werenfried van Straaten, a devout Dutch priest trying to heal the wounds of war-torn Germany by lavishing hope and love on its people. His legacy is a vibrant organization that translates the commitment of generous donors into actual hope for their brothers and sisters who suffer to practice their Christian faith.