Coronavirus, terrorism, and war – and once again a growing level of persecution. The year 2020 has been a difficult one for many Christians around the world. At the end of the year, Thomas Heine-Geldern, the executive president of the international Catholic pastoral charity and pontifical foundation Aid to the Church in Need (ACN), took stock of the main areas of persecution, the work in defense of religious freedom, and also the signs of hope and the help that has been given. He was interviewed by Maria Lozano.

2019 was a terrible year for Christians. Has the situation improved or worsened during 2020?

In many countries, the coronavirus and its consequences have led to a further undermining of peoples‘ right to religious freedom. During this time many already oppressed Christians have suffered a real via Crucis of poverty, exclusion, and discrimination. On top of this, there have been many deadly attacks against Christians. During 2020 Africa, in particular, has once again been a “continent of martyrs”. In this context, I would like to remember, among others, the Nigerian seminarian Michael Nnadi, murdered in Nigeria, and Philippe Yargas, a catechist from Pansi in Burkina Faso, also murdered for his faith. And also all those victims of religious persecution who are still, as far as we know, alive – in particular Sister Gloria Narvaez in Mali.

You referred to the coronavirus pandemic. What effect has it had on suffering Christians?

We have received many urgent appeals from many of the local churches. They were urgent cries for help. There are countries where the social discrimination against Christians has become still more intense as a result of the pandemic. I am thinking particularly of the Christian minorities in Pakistan and India. In many cases, it has been impossible for them to get any aid through the official state channels. Consequently, we have initiated an emergency aid program. And many other regions, where Christians are among the poorest in society, have sent us requests for support in their pastoral and charitable work. It is precisely in such places where the Church is often the only source of help when the state institutions fail them. For the same reason, we also continued to support priests and religious brothers and sisters in their apostolate and ministry, for example in Ukraine, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and Brazil.

Which regions of the world will be the principal focus of ACN‘s aid in 2021?

The situation in the African countries of the Sahel region is of great concern to us, as is the situation in Mozambique. The religious extremism of violent, radical Islamists is on the increase here and threatens to destroy the existing peaceful coexistence between Christians and Muslims in these countries, as the extremists strive for power and economic resources. Hundreds of thousands of people have been forcibly expelled or forced to flee. Many organizations are withdrawing their agents for security reasons, but the Church is still there and caring for the people. Nigeria will likewise keep us very much occupied. This is an extremely important country for the entire continent, but terrorism and death lie like a dark shadow over so many of the people. We simply can‘t abandon them now.

For many years now ACN has invested a great deal of energy and resources into supporting the survival of Christians in the Middle East. Since the beginning of the war in Syria and the IS incursions and subsequent defeat in Iraq, the charity has supported aid projects in Syria and Iraq to a total value of over 90 million Euros. In addition to this, ACN has supported numerous projects for refugees in neighboring countries. What is the situation like in the region now?

Many Christians in the Middle East continue to feel insecure and are contemplating leaving their homelands. The economic and political situation in these countries is no source of comfort to them. Nor is the danger of jihadist violence in any sense finally overcome. Lebanon, a country that was always a source of refuge and security, especially for Christians in the Middle East, is in economic ruins. The situation generally is extremely grave, yet there are some small signs of hope. In the towns and villages of the Niniveh plains in Iraq, fully half of the Christian families have now returned to their former homes. And in Syria, too, rebuilding has started. The papal visit to Iraq, which has been announced for early March 2021, is likewise a great ray of hope. We are immensely grateful to the Holy Father for deciding to visit the Christians in Iraq. For they have great need of him.

On 8 December you also spoke about the situation of the Christians in India. An ACN report on the situation of persecuted Christians earlier stated that “Asia threatens to become the new focus of anti-Christian persecution“. Is the situation there really that bad?

Nationalistic movements and authoritarian regimes are already making life difficult for many Christians in Asia. India is a good example of this, which is why, for example, we have been engaged in campaigning for the release of the 83-year-old Jesuit priest, Father Stan Swamy, who is also suffering from Parkinsons. In a number of Asian countries, Christianity is being portrayed as a harmful foreign influence, which threatens the authority of the ruling party or the alleged religious unity of the nation. In India this is happening in the context of the so-called Hindutva, the notion according to which India should be governed according to Hinduist ideology, while in China the slogan is “sinicization” – in other words, that the teachings and Tradition of the Church should be adapted to so-called “Chinese culture” – as interpreted by the Chinese Communist Party.

Every other year ACN publishes a report on the situation of religious freedom worldwide. The next report has had to be postponed on account of the coronavirus, however, and will now be published in April 2021. Can you tell us anything about it in advance?

Since the last report the situation has not got any better in regard to religious freedom; indeed it has grown worse, worldwide. During 2020, thank God, there were none of the kind of massive attacks against Christians and other religious minorities that we saw in the previous year. However, there is a great deal of discrimination and persecution that is either continuing in a less conspicuous way or else receiving very little publicity in the world media. The forthcoming report will seek to expose this fact clearly. In many countries of the world, although there is no visible, public persecution, there is increasing resentment and hostility towards believers. This is becoming increasingly evident in Europe as well. Christians today are faced by a radical and deep-rooted attack on two different fronts. On the one hand, there is the attempt to destroy the Christian roots of society and construct an exclusively individualistic society without God. On the other, there is the attempt to radicalize individuals and forcibly impose a fundamentalist Islamic worldview, by sowing terror and violence and falsifying religion and the name of God.

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As 2020 draws to a close, our world needs more than ever the promise of God’s presence among us through the birth of His son.

Many of us have arrived at Advent worn down and disorientated by the dark shadow cast over our world by the coronavirus pandemic. Our hearts are heavy with the suffering we have felt and seen, the many deaths, and the disturbing reminders to keep our distance from our loved ones and from the rest of humanity.

The pandemic took many people by surprise, even though there had been numerous signs of grave imbalances and injustices in our world. The ruthless devastation of this virus has shaken us awake from our torpor.

“Stay awake!” says Jesus. “For you do not know on which day your Lord will come.”

Pope Francis’ encyclical letter, Fratelli Tutti, which was released this year, calls on us to recognize and travel new paths of hope: “For God continues to sow abundant seeds of goodness in our human family.”

The encyclical calls for us to open our hearts with gratitude to the possibility of universal love. This means seeing the value, worth, and beauty of every human being as they are, and allowing ourselves to be seen in all our vulnerability and to be loved too.

Caritas staff and volunteers across the globe have been bearers of this love during the pandemic. Through concrete actions, Caritas has been ensuring vulnerable communities aren’t left alone and can survive the pandemic as the world has faced lockdown.

People are astonished at how one tiny virus has upended the plans of the whole world. This is a reminder to all of us that our plans turn to dust in the face of God’s great and mysterious plan.

As we await the arrival of our Lord in Bethlehem, we are invited to ponder the presence of Christ in the poor and marginalized people in our world today. The baby Jesus was also tiny and insignificant, but the power of his love and actions towards those who society had forgotten echoes down the ages and still reverberates in our lives today.

At the end of a year where suffering and death have dominated, we eagerly welcome the coming of our Lord and the coming of the Kingdom of God.

As we prepare to say goodbye to 2020, I pray for the openness of heart that will allow us all to walk the path of faith, hope, and charity and to embrace the new life about to be born that is calling us towards universal love.

Wishing you a Christmas full of blessings.

Yours in Christ,

Cardinal Luis Antonio Tagle
President of Caritas Internationalis

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This is what Fr. Guido Trezzani, Director of Caritas Kazakhstan and missionary in the «Ark Village» reception community in Talgar, near Almaty, tells Fides News Agency.

The guests of the Village, explains the missionary, continue to benefit from distance learning courses, in the midst of many difficulties: «The poor quality of resources, the technical problems and the technological unpreparedness of the teachers are making these months of distance learning very difficult. We continue, therefore, to seek alternative forms of teaching, in order to provide both our people and potential external participants with alternative content to those provided by the school. Another problem linked to distance learning is not only learning that worsens but also the human and social factor. Our young people are surely less affected than the others because they have the possibility of socializing among themselves, but each one has personal friends in their own classes and this lack is felt».

The Village team continues to work on several fronts: «Recently, we obtained a license from civil institutions allowing us to provide the human and psychological training necessary for couples applying for the adoption of children. In this case, too, the work is carried out online and continues with great intensity. In addition, we are currently working on a series of projects which can, on the one hand, support and improve activities in the village and, on the other hand, set up productive and self-financing activities, as we had done in the past with the construction of a greenhouse», concludes the missionary.

Founded on June 1, 2000, the Village generally hosts about 70 children, orphans, or families at risk, including about 30 physically and mentally handicapped. Since 2007, a medical center has been built within the structure which has a dental, a radiological, and a physiotherapy clinic. The first steps of the project date back to 1997, with the reception of children from a state orphanage in the process of being closed. Today, young people from families destroyed by violence or alcoholism are also welcomed.

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On the 20^th anniversary of his episcopal ordination, a Syrian archbishop offered Mass for all supporters of a Catholic charity that has provided aid since the start of the country’s civil war.

On Sunday (December 20), Syriac-Catholic Archbishop Antoine Chahda of Aleppo said Mass for all the benefactors of Catholic charity Aid to the Church in Need (ACN) at the city’s Our Lady of the Assumption Cathedral.

In a message to ACN’s benefactors, Archbishop Chahda said: “We, here in Aleppo, are very grateful for all that you are doing for us, our Christian community, and all those who are going through difficult moments in their lives and need your help.

“Your support helps families to stay in the country.”

Since the beginning of the war in 2011, ACN has supported 326 projects in Aleppo including 53 in 2020.

Projects in the city include restoring its Maronite Cathedral, providing milk for children, scholarship aid for Christian students, food, rent, and other basic essentials for the elderly and other vulnerable people.

ACN has not only given support to the country’s Catholic Churches, but also to other Christian Churches in the region, such as the Syriac Orthodox.

Archbishop Chahda added: “We ask you to continue supporting us, at this particularly difficult time, as Aleppo continues to suffer.”

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Louis Damani Jones is a member of the local CCHD committee in the Diocese of Belleville, and a board member of Catholic Charities of the Archdiocese of Saint Louis (neighboring Belleville). Louis has been active in amplifying the work of CCHD locally in Belleville by training parents in East St. Louis, IL to become leaders in their community and developing relationships with low-income-led economic development projects. Louis has successfully engaged countless Catholics in the work of CCHD and the larger social tradition of the Church through his role as a CCHD intern with both the Diocese of Belleville and the Archdiocese of Saint Louis. Recently, Louis has continued his work educating Catholics about the work of CCHD to address poverty’s root causes by launching the Catholic Social Teaching focused podcast, Living Communion, and helping to coordinate the joint celebration being planned by the two dioceses for the CCHD’s 50th anniversary.

Louis is currently working towards a Master of Social Work (MSW) at Washington University in St. Louis, and he was recently featured as a young adult panelist at the USCCB National Leadership Forum on Ministry with Young Adults on December 9. He joined representatives from the Vatican Dicastery for Laity, Family, and Life, the Leadership Roundtable, and others for a keynote panel focused on how pastoral leaders can best minister to those in their twenties and thirties.

“Louis is an inspiring example to those young Catholics who long to do something about poverty and injustice in our country. He demonstrates to all that working for just social systems is central to the Gospel message and the witness of Jesus Christ,” said Cheryl Sommer, diocesan director for the Catholic Campaign for Human Development in Belleville.

Ralph McCloud, director of the Catholic Campaign for Human Development said, “Louis’ unceasing dedication to empowering the marginalized and acting in solidarity with the community embodies the heart and soul of CCHD’s mission. As CCHD celebrates more than fifty years of transformative work to end poverty and help communities build resilience, we are pleased to award Louis the Cardinal Bernardin New Leadership Award.”

The award, bestowed annually, is named for the late Cardinal Joseph Bernardin, who served as archbishop of Chicago from 1982 till his death in 1996. Cardinal Bernardin served as the first general secretary of the U.S. bishops’ conference from 1968-1972, and as the conference’s third president from 1974-1977. More information about the award is available online: https://www.usccb.org/committees/catholic-campaign-human-development/cardinal-bernardin-new-leadership-award.

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Their happiness lasted just fifteen minutes. For at 6.07 p.m. 2,750 tonnes of ammonium nitrate exploded in Hanger 13 in the nearby port of Beirut. Over 200 people died and more than 6,500 were wounded. “Everything flew through the air; I thought war had broken out. My first thought was for my wife and child. It was a miracle. When I see the cradle in which Nabil was lying, I can only give thanks to God. It was directly beneath the shattered window, covered in shards of glass that had bored into the blankets like small lances. But Nabil was completely unscathed, untouched,” says the 32-year-old teacher to the Aid to the Church in Need Foundation.

Jad took the uninjured child into his arms – and marveled. Something similar must have happened in the stable of Bethlehem, around 300 km to the south of Beirut when Joseph first set eyes on the newborn Child. At that time, two thousand years ago, God was also protecting the newborn child. But St. George’s Orthodox Hospital, the oldest and one of the three largest hospitals in the country, was almost completely wrecked. Christelle had to be taken with Nabil to another hospital 50 miles (80 km) away.

Those were hard and challenging moments for this young father. They changed his whole life, just as Saint Joseph’s life was changed when, after being warned by the angel in a dream, he took the Child and his Mother that very night and fled into Egypt (cf. Matt 2:14).

“The explosion has changed my life”, says Jad to ACN during a visit of the Charity to Beirut. Despite all the difficulties, he says he has worked and fought to build the country “which I love”. “But”, he adds with dismay, “in order to remain, we need security and the feeling that someone cares about us Christians. We feel quite alone, abandoned, forgotten.”

The destruction is almost beyond belief. 300,000 people were directly affected by the explosion, which particularly devastated the Christian quarter of the city. Thousands are wondering how they are going to survive the winter. Again, Beirut reminds us of Bethlehem, where there was no inn for God on the first Christmas. The social, economic, and political crisis in Lebanon had already plunged the country into deep poverty. In the midst of all that darkness, Jad remembers every day the miracle of the birth of his firstborn: “I say to our child again and again, ‘You are alive because Christ has saved you. Your mother and I were both injured, but you didn’t receive a scratch. Never forget that. Jesus was with you at that moment. Have no fear, He will always be with you’.”

The three Wise Men brought the Child in Bethlehem gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh. What gift does Jad wish for his child? The young father answers without hesitation: “Peace, security – and the strength to bear the cross of Christ. For being close to Christ means shouldering his cross. My son has lived that reality since the fifteenth minute of his life, and we Christians in Lebanon know this all too well. We have lived through wars and persecutions. We are alive because we have a mission to fulfill. We must bear witness to Christ. That is what the cross entails.”

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Landslides and flooding hampered relief efforts to reach the most devastated communities. Photo by NASSA/Caritas Philippines

Speaking one month after four deadly typhoons lashed the Philippines and as the anniversary of the Paris climate agreement approaches, Fr Tony Labiao says, “Our vision must reach beyond emergency response.

“When we talk about preventing climate change, we can’t just do this alone in the Philippines, we need the help of the global community. It’s only by working together that we make sure future generations are safe.”

Typhoon Goni, the most powerful typhoon to hit the Philippines in twenty years, forced over 350,000 people from their homes and affected nearly five million people at the end of October. In Catanduanes, the island where it made landfall, over 90 percent of infrastructure was reportedly destroyed.

In the twelve days following Typhoon Goni, the Philippines was hit by Tropical Storms Atsani and Etau and Typhoon Vamco, which affected over 4 million people.

“We need to address the real cause of these calamities – climate change, the degradation of our mountains, illegal logging, quarrying and unsustainable farming practices,” says Fr Labiao. “This is not just the work of government, but of the Church and of everyone.”

Caritas Philippines has adopted a multi-faceted approach to protect communities in the face of increasingly aggressive climate events. Advocating for change regarding mining, quarrying, and illegal logging is a key part of their work to reduce the impact of extreme weather on their country.

“All of these issues have a confluence and are provoking more and more deforestation,” says Fr Labiao. “We have to make our voices louder to ensure that people understand how our actions are impacting the environment and impacting the poor.”

Caritas Philippines works with communities before typhoons hit through emergency preparedness programs which create early warning systems and ensure communities are coordinated and react quickly to potential disasters.

Following the recent climate events, Caritas teams on the ground have been providing over 76,000 people with food baskets, hygiene kits, solar lamps, kitchen materials, sleeping kits, and water.

In the long-term Caritas will construct permanent shelters, offer livelihood support, and capacity-building activities.

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This material is at the disposal of the National Directions of the PMS in the countries of America and the Caribbean, and in Bolivia of the 18 ecclesiastical circumscriptions.
Everyone will be able to adapt it to the reality in which they find themselves, reported Fides News Agency.

Particular attention was paid to promoting work with sick and elderly missionaries, who belong to the Pontifical Society for the Propagation of the Faith: «We are encouraged to work with this group of missionaries, who despite being vulnerable, can still play a very important role in the history of the evangelization of our peoples», explained Carla Delgado. Another challenge taken into consideration was that of the promotion of the School of Missionary Animation in order to prepare animators of the infant and adolescent age range of the Pontifical Society of the Holy Childhood. «By working with young people, there is a space we must reach, especially in this context of the pandemic», concludes Carla Delgado.

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Father Anthony underlines how, in times of pandemic, there are many «courageous and selfless women and men who work in different parts of the world at the service of the poor and the weakest», offering «material but also spiritual support, because what matters is to experience the love of God».

«Last year – Fr. Chantry tells Fides – I visited a number of projects in Mongolia and in one of the religious communities where I stayed, the Missionaries of Charity, the Congregation founded by St. Teresa of Calcutta. These nuns run retirement homes for the abandoned elderly and homes for street children. They live and work with very little help – he explains – and they are not allowed by law to promote the Catholic faith. Their actions are every day, exclusively, in favor of the local population. This is a profound testimony of the Gospel and of love for God».

According to the Director of Missio, however necessary «the aspect of fundraising of the PMS for the future of the Church struggling in areas of deprivation, conflict, and poverty, in reality, it is only a secondary aspect compared to our fundamental call: the profound relationship with God and the reciprocal strengthening in faith, ready to be witnesses and messengers of Christ with our enthusiasm and our missionary zeal». Fr. Anthony concludes: «We are called to rekindle the mission through sparkles of true love, as a reflection of the love for Jesus».

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