Aid to the Church in Need

A story about a group dedicated to helping churches struggling under oppression

The world today is very different from the one in which a Belgian-based Dutch priest built up an international network to help churches struggling under atheistic Communism.

Werenfried van Straaten, who founded Aid to the Church in Need in 1947, died in January at the age of 90.

But for two young Montreal women and their colleagues in the Montreal office that co-ordinates Canadian fundraising and educational activities for the network, the mission is continuing and growing.

The group's website

And here's a link to The Catholic Extension Society, the wonderful group that gives support to small, struggling and isolated Catholic churches in the US and its territories:

Catholic Extension raises funds to extend the faith into the poorest and most remote regions of the United States and its territories. With your help, we allocate more than $16 million annually to assist outreach programs, missionary salaries, church building and repair, seminarian education, and disaster relief. Please help us help them.

Comments

[Elizabeth Josephine Weston]

Aid to the Church in Need sent me a fundraising letter earlier this year and it included a medal (or Cross, I can't remember) and it was made in China. One of my regular prayer intentions is for Chinese Catholics, and I try to avoid buying things made in China because of their human rights violations. I wrote them about this, since the Chinese Church is certainly a Church in need: see the recent articles about the low key nature of the Pope's visit with the Dalai Lama. It does do good work, but one would expect certain consistency with fundraising issues.