Friday, June 17, 2016

ACN News - Pope calls faithful around the world to join ACN in ‘Be God’s Mercy’ campaign



By Marta Petrosillo


International Catholic charity Aid to the Church in Need (ACN) has launched a worldwide campaign that calls on the faithful to help the sick and suffering around the world with acts of charity.

The “Be God’s Mercy” campaign has the Church’s most important backing—that of Pope Francis, who personally endorses the four-month-long initiative that will conclude Oct. 4, 2016. On that day, the Feast of St. Francis of Assisi, ACN officials will present the Pope with the “first fruits” of the campaign.

At a press conference formally launching the campaign, the Pope—in a video message—called on Catholics around the world to “carry out works of mercy together with ACN, in every part of the world, in order to meet the many, many needs of today.”

Projects that will benefit from the unprecedented fundraising effort—driven by all of the 22 national offices of ACN—will include pastoral ministry in prisons, drug rehabilitation centers, the funding of support groups for battered women, and aid for refugees.

The very first benefactor of the campaign is Pope Francis himself who—prior to a recent visit by an Italian delegation of ACN to Erbil in Iraqi Kurdistan—entrusted a donation to the organization earmarked for Iraqi Christians.

The papal gift will be presented to St. Joseph’s Clinic in Erbil, which offers free medical care to some 2,800 refugees of various religious backgrounds.

Present at the press conference were ACN’s international President Cardinal Mauro Piacenza and General Secretary Philipp Ozores. Along with other members of the ACN delegation, the officials were received in a private audience by the Pope just prior to the press conference.

The press conference—which was moderated by the Vatican’ media spokesperson Father Federico Lombardi, SJ—featured an account by Archbishop Sebastian Francis Shaw of Lahore, Pakistan on how local Christian communities have reacted to the Easter bomb attack on a local park that killed 76 Christians, including 30 children.

Three projects in the “Be God’s Mercy” campaign will support the Church in Lahore, partly to aid victims of an earlier March 2015 attack on two churches in the city’s Christian quarter and partly to improve security measures for one of these churches, the Church of St. John, as well as for the nearby diocesan seminary of St. Francis Xavier

The relationship between Pope Francis and ACN goes back a long way. As Archbishop of Buenos Aires, then-Cardinal Bergoglio carried out a number of projects with the help of ACN, which he described, in a letter written to mark the 60th anniversary of the charity, as a “symbol of communion and fraternity with the suffering Church.”

For more information about the Be God’s Mercy Campaign, please consult the multi-lingual website www.acnmercy.org


With picture of Pope Francis (© 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

Fine Arts Friday - Father's Day

Biblical fathers and sons depicted in art is this week's theme.

Happy Father's Day to all you father's!


1.  God the Father and God the Son

The Holy Trinity by Hendrick von Balen I

Picture source



2.  St. Joseph and the Child Jesus

Saint Joseph and the Child Jesus by Jusepe de Ribera

Picture source

3.  The Prodigal Son and his loving Father.

The Return of the Prodigal Son by Rembrandt van Rijn

Picture source

4.  Adam and his sons.

Adam and Eve with Cain and Abel by Giovanni David


Picture source

5.  Abraham and Isaac.


Picture source


Thursday, June 16, 2016

ACN News - ‘Mother Teresa was the best missionary of the millennium’



By Eva-Maria Kolmann


An Indian prelate has described Blessed Teresa of Calcutta, who will be canonized by Pope Francis Sept. 4, 2016, as the “best missionary of the millennium.”

Bishop Salvadore Lobo of Baruipur, who headed the canonization committee, reported that Christ had said to Mother Teresa in a vision: “Go into the houses, I cannot go alone, you be my face.” Indeed, “for the world today she has become the face of Christ,” the bishop said.

Bishop Lobo said that Hindus are also convinced that she was a saint. He said: “Some Hindus wonder why the Church needs to go through a canonization process. They say, ‘Mother Teresa was a saint anyway. But if the Church needs these formalities, then so be it.’”

Hindus also understand, Bishop Lobo added, that “service to the poor is service to God.” The bishop reported that during the beatification process as well, a large number of witnesses had come forth, including many Hindus and Muslims. He described the canonization as “a great joy” for all of India.

Bishop Lobo, who met Mother Teresa as a young seminarian and worked with the dying at her “Kalighat” hospice in Calcutta as a volunteer, described his first impression of her as that of a “transformative saint” who “emanated the personification of Christ.”

“She taught the world a lesson: Jesus lives in the hearts of the poor. We shall find His face in them,” the prelate said.

Mother Teresa was born Anjezë (Agnes) Gonxha Bojaxhiu Aug. 26, 1910, in Skopje (at the time it was part of the Ottoman Empire, today it is part of Macedonia). Her family was Albanian. At age 18, she entered the Order of the Loreto Sisters.

Soon thereafter she was sent to India, where she worked as a teacher until 1946, when she felt the calling to serve the poor.

At first she went alone into the slums of Calcutta, but was then joined by several former fellow students. She founded the order of the “Missionaries of Charity,” which continues to take care of the poorest of the poor all over the world today.

Mother Teresa was already considered a saint during her lifetime and became famous the world over as the “Angel of the Poor.” She received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1979.

She died Sept. 5, 1997 in Calcutta, India. Pope John Paul II beatified her on Oct. 19, 2003, only six years after her death. Her liturgical feast day will be 5th of September.


With picture of Mother Teresa and ACN founder Father Werenfried van Straaten (© 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