Eight Christian aid workers kidnapped in South Sudan have been freed unharmed. The eight members of the US-based Samaritan’s Purse charity were reportedly snatched by armed gunmen on March 13 in the central Mayendit area. Despite subsequent claims by the county’s military that the aid workers were being held for ransom, no such demand was…

The Holy See’s Permanent Observer to the United Nations has urged the international community to forge an enduring peace for Syria. As the conflict in the Middle Eastern nation reached its sixth anniversary in March, Archbishop Ivan Jurkovic told a sitting of the UN in Geneva that “six years of ongoing conflict indicate the failure…

The latest news is as grim as any emanating from the bloody battlefields of the Middle East currently dominating airtime with the international media. But this is Africa and, more specifically, Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). Thus, as embedded journalists in Iraq warned us to prepare for the worst as mass graves turned up amid…

A Chaldean Catholic church whose image announced the fall of Mosul in 2014 has been liberated. When so-called Islamic State (ISIS) swept through Iraq in June 2014, a ‘before-and-after’ picture of the Church of Our Mother of Perpetual help in Mosul emerged showing the crucifix topping the building replaced by the black banner of the…

The Church in Egypt has lauded the efforts of Muslims to assist Christians fleeing Sinai. Spokesman Fr Rafiq Greiche said: “Ordinary Muslims are kind and try to help however they can. They’re often first on the scene, rescuing the injured.” Fr Greiche spoke as so-called Islamic State (ISIS), which is behind the drive to oust…

A new request for a hearing in the case of Asia Bibi is to be presented to Pakistan’s Supreme Court at the end of March, supporters of the imprisoned Christian woman have revealed. The announcement came following an update on Mrs Bibi’s condition as she continues to languish in Multan prison, Punjab, where she has…

Can good news for a community be, simultaneously, bad news for that same community? It seems that this is possible if one is living within the Christian population of India. By way of elucidation we must look back one week, and to news reports of Christian fortunes in the states of Arunachal Pradesh and Manipur,…

Europe’s top court has ruled that employers can bar workers from wearing religious symbols in the workplace. The judgement handed down by the European Court of Justice (ECJ) states that internal company rules can be shaped so as to require ‘neutral dress’ on the part of employees. The case was centred on the experiences of…

A Caritas director in one Catholic diocese in South Sudan has warned that “the humanitarian situation…is getting to a catastrophic stage”. Writing after the official announcement of famine in the country, William Okot de Toby, who oversees the work of the Church’s development agency in the Diocese of Torit in the far south-east, said: “Hunger…

Restoration work on the tomb of Jesus in Jerusalem’s Church of the Holy Sepulchre will be completed in time for the celebration of Easter Sunday, April 16, it has been announced. Following nine months of refurbishment on the Edicule sitting atop the central site of the Christian world, the National Technical University of Athens, which…