ACN International Operation

  

Aid to the Church in Need is an international charitable organization founded in Belgium in 1947 and presently established in 17 countries. It is now a pontifical Foundation with official seat in Vatican City.

Its International Secretariat is established in Königstein, Germany. Seventeen national organizations known as national offices, in as many countries, report to the International Secretariat. These are the donor countries; their faithful supply the entire funding of the charity, for it does not benefit from any statutory collection within the Church. Nor does any national office receive any government help of any nature.

Click here to access a chart of member countries and links to each member’s Web site or Web page.

Cardinal Piacenza

Cardinal Piacenza, president

Johannes Heereman

Johannes Heereman, executive president

 

ACN's Board

On 22 May the Administrative Council, the supreme governing body of ACN’s new Pontifical Foundation, was formally constituted in Rome. It includes seven bishops from all over the world. From the left: Archbishop Savio Hon Tai-Fai (China), Bishop Antoni Stankiewicz (Poland), Archbishop José Octavio Ruiz Arenas (Columbia), Cardinal Mauro Piacenza (Prefect of the Clergy Congregation and Foundation President), Baron Johannes Heereman von Zuydtwyck (Executive President), Bishop Éric Aumonier (France), Father Martin Barta (Ecclesiastical Assistant of the Foundation), Bishop Mauro Parmeggiani (Italy), Bishop Gregor Maria Hanke (Germany).

 

ACN International’s mission consists in helping local churches that are either oppressed or lack basic means to fulfill their mission. Categories of aid include:

  • Church and chapel construction or renovation
     
  • Education for seminarians, members of religious orders and catechists
     
  • Means of transportation for missionaries, priests, nuns and catechists
     
  • Help to refugees and displaced people
     
  • Evangelization through radio and television broadcasts, in many local languages
     
  • Printing and distributing Bibles and religious publications
     
  • Distribution of mass stipends to needy priests.

For more information, please consult the “Goals” menu on ACN International’s Web site.

construction chapelle

 

 

 
Over the last few years, ACN International has collected some US$70 million annually. More than 80% of these monies have been redistributed to needy Churches in approximately 140 countries. The remainder represents the minimum that has to be invested in establishing an infrastructure capable not only of efficiently managing the funds and how they are used, but also of promoting the growth of the organization, because the harvest is plenteous, but the labourers are few. For a current list of benefiting countries and precise figures, please consult our last annual report.

Each year, more than 10,000 projects are submitted to the International Secretariat under a strict presentation protocol. Aid is granted in line with established priorities and available cash flow. However, project acceptance is always conditional on the applicant’s ability to provide part of the resources, in either cash or labor.

Séminaristes

Roumanian seminarians