The pontifical foundation Aid to the Church in Need (ACN) has launched a series of initiatives that seek to raise awareness of the persecution of Christians worldwide on the beginning day of World Youth Day, Lisbon. The purpose is to encourage pilgrims and participants in the international event to actively help the suffering Church from their own countries.
Catarina Martins de Bettencourt, national director of ACN in Portugal, said in a statement published on 25 July: “We want to sensitize the largest possible number of young people participating in World Youth Day about the reality of the persecuted Church in the world, unfortunately still very unknown”.
The ACN team in Lisbon has been busy with preparations, organizing volunteers, and preparing materials for the exhibition, as well as finalizing plans for the event. “This is a unique opportunity that we don’t want to waste,” he said.
“Not every day you can participate in an event of the magnitude of WYD. In the specific case of the ACN Foundation, we are seeing it as a great responsibility”, he added.
Through the festival of faith that will last a week, ACN will carry out various activities under the motto “Heroes in faith”, which seek to highlight the reality of the persecuted Church in the world, as well as the testimonies of faith that the pontifical foundation receives from countries where there is no religious freedom.
Catarina Martins de Bettencourt also indicated: “Our objective is to invite each person who passes by our stand to the exhibitions and conferences that we have, as well as to the films that we will screen, to take a closer and deeper look at the issue of the persecution of the Christians”.
One of the main settings for these activities will be the Basilica of the Martyrs in the Chiado neighborhood. There, ACN will hold an exhibition featuring Christian items desecrated in Iraq during the occupation by Islamic State terrorists. The exhibition aims to show the suffering of the country’s Christians.
The basilica will also host a conference with the testimony of two Christians: Joseph Fadelle, an Iraqi convert from Shiite Islam who was arrested, tortured and forced to flee the country; and Rafi Ghattas, a Palestinian Christian from the Holy Land who will speak about the experience of his community, which currently represents only 1% of the population.
Another initiative that ACN is preparing for World Youth Day is the screening of several documentaries about the lives of people whose faith is put to the test every day. These will be on display at the São Jorge cinema.
“We want young people, when they return to their countries after WYD, to take this seed with them, this desire to also participate in the mission of helping and showing solidarity with the persecuted and needy Church,” said Martins de Bettencourt.