Ukraine and Lebanon continues to receive critical support from Pontifical foundation Aid to the Church in Need.

India, Nigeria, and Burkina Faso also leading beneficiaries

Ukraine, Lebanon and India are the three countries receiving the most aid in 2024 from the pontifical foundation Aid to the Church in Need, while Africa was the continent receiving the most support.

Aid to the Church in Need (ACN), founded in 1947, assists the Church around the world in the face of persecution, repression, war, or extreme poverty. The pontifical charity released its annual Activity Report on June 18, detailing the statistics and the kind of assistance provided.

Thanks to ACN’s benefactors, the foundation was able to fund 5,335 projects in 137 countries with approximately 95.6 million euros.

Ukraine received the most aid from ACN in 2024 for the third year in a row, reflecting the nation’s suffering amid a full-scale Russian invasion. The amount that ACN provided was 8.4 million euros. Lebanon came next, with 7.4 million euros, followed by India, with 6.7 million.

“Ukraine was again the single country receiving the greatest proportion of our assistance which has increasingly focused on counselling and supporting those suffering from trauma, said ACN International Executive President Regina Lynch. “At the same time, we are continuing to help priests and religious with basic support for their life and ministry, helping to train seminarians and providing transport to help them carry out their pastoral ministry, and also assisting with essential heating for the winter.

ACN’s partners in Ukraine stress the importance of supporting those in need, helping them to overcome their inner exhaustion and resist despair. For this reason, ACN maintains close contact with the representatives of the local Church and will continue to support them in the future in assisting traumatized people and refugees by responding to their emotional and material needs.

In 2024 alone, the foundation financed 312 projects totaling 8.4 million euros. With the war devastating the energy infrastructure in many areas, heating projects and the acquisition of generators and heat pumps became top priorities. Since Russia launched its full-scale invasion of the country in 2022, it has targeted civilian infrastructure, particularly in the winter, causing power outages and depriving thousands of people of the ability to heat their homes in the winter.

At the same time, supporting priests and religious was crucial, as they remained with their faithful amid the chaos of war, often facing hardship themselves, both materially and emotionally. To help them cope with the immense challenges, ACN provides support through Mass stipends and subsistence aid, as well as opportunities to attend spiritual exercises, retreat days or seminars with psychological assistance.

The foundation also continued to support the training of all 768 seminarians currently in the country; provided 58 vehicles to support pastoral care and assist in aiding refugees, and supported psychological training for priests, religious and lay people to help people with trauma. ACN funded four centers dedicated to providing psychological and pastoral care. In 2024, the main focus of all holiday camps for children and young people was also on overcoming the trauma of war.

Lebanon and India

Aid to the Church in Need also provided help to the Church in Lebanon, in a year that saw conflict between Israel and Hezbollah. ACN provided emergency aid totaling 4.7 million euros. ACN helped a convent in the town of Jabboulé, which was housing hundreds of internally displaced persons, to procure food, mattresses, blankets and medicines.

With no clear resolution to the conflict in sight, the foundation is working to encourage Christian families to stay in their home country, providing emergency aid to ensure that at least basic needs are met and to bring hope to young people, who often struggle to see prospects for their future.

In India, militant groups have increased their hostile actions against Christians. Strict anti-conversion laws are still in place in several federal states, requiring any change of religion to be declared and authorized by the authorities. Christians here live in a state of permanent tension and fear spontaneous violent attacks. Time and again, Christian churches have been vandalized and priests, religious and the faithful attacked. The prospects for a better future are poor for the local Christians and other religious minorities.

The priority regions for ACN’s aid are the north and northeast of the country. Many of the believers there belong to disadvantaged social groups and ethnic minorities. ACN primarily supports priests and religious in the region with Mass stipends and subsistence aid, provides vehicles for pastoral care in expansive areas that are difficult to reach, and helps with the construction and renovation of church buildings.

In addition, it supports the training of future priests and the continuing education of priests, religious and lay people. We also strengthen marriage preparation in the Church and provide catechesis for children and young people.

At the regional level, Africa received the most support, with almost a third of resources, or 30.2%, set aside for projects in the continent. Among the main beneficiary countries in this region include Nigeria and Burkina Faso.

“Our help for Africa accounted for the largest slice of our project aid last year. The Church in Africa is growing rapidly and is blessed with large numbers of priestly and religious vocations. Africa suffers not only from deep poverty but also increasingly from violent Islamic jihadist terror in a growing number of countries. To give just one example, in Burkina Faso alone our aid has increased threefold over the past four years as a result,” Lynch explains.

In general, ACN increased support for the training of priests and religious and lay people. Other areas of focus include the construction, reconstruction or renovation of churches and church buildings; providing Mass stipends for priests and subsistence aid for religious; and emergency aid in various crises around the world.