ACN News - ACN grants emergency aid to East Congo

International Catholic pastoral charity Aid to the Church in Need (ACN) has announced that it is granting $65,400 in emergency aid to help refugees in Eastern Congo.

According to the Bishop Theophile Kaboy of Goma, the money will be distributed by religious orders in the country to the needy in refugee camps around Goma: for food, clothing and medical supplies.

In the resources-rich East of this Central African Country the situation has been explosive for weeks, and many have been fleeing from the unimaginably violent conflicts between highly diverse political forces and military leaders.

Pope Benedict XVI has called on the international community to act and has asked for aid for the refugees, for women, children and the old, or anyone lacking the basic essentials.

Bishop Kaboy thanked ACN for the emergency aid and also for the prayer campaign launched worldwide by ACN for peace in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

Christians of all denominations are invited to join in this campaign of prayer and peace for the Congo on nine successive days, from December 16 to 24, 2012, the festival of the birth of Christ, the Prince of Peace.

With picture of Kanyaruchinya discplacement camp in Goma in the Democratic Republic of Congo (© ACN)

Editor’s Notes:

Directly under the Holy Father, Aid to the Church in Need supports the faithful wherever they are persecuted, oppressed or in pastoral need.  ACN is a Catholic charity - helping to bring Christ to the world through prayer, information and action.

Founded in 1947 by Father Werenfried van Straaten, whom Pope John Paul II named “An Outstanding Apostle of Charity,” the organization is now at work in over 145 countries throughout the world.

The charity undertakes thousands of projects every year including providing transport for clergy and lay Church workers, construction of church buildings, funding for priests and nuns and help to train seminarians. Since the initiative’s launch in 1979, 43 million Aid to the Church in Need Child’s Bibles have been distributed worldwide.

For more information contact Michael Varenne at michael@churchinneed.org or call 718-609-0939 or fax718-609-0938. Aid to the Church in Need, 725 Leonard Street, PO Box 220384, Brooklyn, NY 11222-0384.  www.churchinneed.org