The Iraqi government has moved to establish a committee with the aim of identifying and countering persecution against Christians in the country. On the orders of Prime Minister Haydar al Abadi, the committee will work to collect details of incidences of persecution from the long-suffering community and formulate concrete security responses to better protect Christians.…

A lawyer representing hard-pressed Christian communities in the Chinese province of Zhejiang has been arrested. Zhang Kai, of Beijing’s Xinqiao Law Firm, had travelled to Zhejiang to work fulltime in assisting communities directly affected by a drive to remove crosses and demolish church properties. Since late 2013, the campaign has affected some 1,200 church properties.…

American abortion provider Planned Parenthood is facing a fresh scandal following claims that it failed to report a suspected case of sexual abuse to the authorities. As the group continues to suffer fall-out from video exposés of its trade in foetal body parts, an online news outlet in Alabama has revealed documents it says show…

Christian-backed schools in Israel are set to remain closed when the autumn term begins due to an ongoing funding crisis. In an announcement from the Secretariat of Christian Schools in Israel, which provides education to some 33,000 pupils, despite a positive meeting on the issue with Israel’s President Reuven Rivlin last week, schools are set…

The government of the Indian state of Karnataka has announced it is to compensate 12 Christians who fell victim to Hindu radicals during a wave of violence in 2008. In September 2008, over 20 Protestant churches across the state were attacked and ransacked by members of the Sangh Parivar, an umbrella group for extreme Hindu…

Pope Francis has led renewed calls for an end to anti-Christian persecution.  Leading his weekly Sunday audience in Rome, the Pontiff celebrated the life of newly-beatified Lebanese martyr Syriac Bishop Flavien-Michel Malke but then departed from his scripted address to issue a call to the international community to act on the continuing persecution of Christians.…

Our Lady of Fatima bound for Syria The statue of Our Lady of Fatima will leave Portugal for Syria on September 7 to be offered for veneration in Damascus. Intended as a sign of Christian solidarity with suffering Syrians, the pilgrimage is a response to an appeal from His Beatitude Gregory III Laham, Patriarch of Antioch and All the East, and…

The Diocese of Down & Connor is hosting its second Faith and Life Convention on Saturday, September 26 in Our Lady and St Patrick’s College, Knock, Belfast beginning at 10am. The Faith and Life Convention is a forum for people to gather together and to take part in a range of conversations about the meaning…

Mass will be celebrated on Sunday, September 6 at 1.30pm in St Aengus’ Church in Burt, Co. Donegal for motor bikers. This will be a time to pray and remember all those bikers who have lost their lives in recent times and a time to ask for God’s blessing. After the Mass all the bikes…