Aid to the Church in Need
Aid to the Church in Need (Kirche in Not in German, Aiuto alla Chiesa che Soffre in Italian) describes itself as "an international pastoral aid organization of the Catholic Church, which yearly offers financial support to more than 5,000 projects worldwide. It tries to help Catholics in need wherever they are repressed or persecuted and therefore prevented from living according to their faith."
History
Aid to the Church in Need was founded by Dutch Catholic priest Father Werenfried van Straaten in 1947.[1][2] The initial goal was to aid German expellees and refugees fled from or expelled from Eastern Europe in the wake of the Second World War, many of them Catholic.[1]
Its international headquarters is based in in Königstein, Germany, and it maintains branches in 20 countries of the world. Its main publication is Mirror.
References
- ^ a b "Obituaries: Father Werenfried van Straaten". Daily Telegraph. February 1, 2003. Retrieved September 15, 2015.
- ^ Bogle, Joanna (2001). Fr Werenfried: A Life. Gracewing. p. 20. ISBN 978-0852444795.