Between them, Regina Lynch and Philipp Ozores have served over five decades with the pontifical charity Aid to the Church in Need (ACN), and this year alone will help oversee 5,000 projects to aid suffering Christians worldwide.

Government restrictions involving religion in 198 countries is at its highest point since Pew Research began tracking such numbers in 2007.

A Vatican meeting between Pope Francis and Cuban President and First Secretary Miguel Díaz-Canel on June 20 drew a small protest at the Via della Conciliazione (Road of the Conciliation), the boulevard leading to St. PeteröÏÓãÊÓƵapp Square.

Aid to the Church in Need and its 330,000 donors world-wide are responding to the changing world of religious persecution.

Christianity is disappearing from towns and cities in parts of the Middle East, warns a new report from the papal foundation Aid to the Church in Need.

WASHINGTON -- The world is "filled with people in need," including the unborn, trafficking victims, those "suffering the agonies of addiction and abuse, people with disabilities and still others facing famine and disease, said U.S. Rep. Chris Smith, R-New Jersey.

BEIRUT -- The first time a band of Islamic State militants "visited" the monks, they presented the monks with a kind of suggestion, in a nonthreatening manner: "Why don't you become a Muslim?"

MANCHESTER, England -- A top British official said the government would commit itself to a robust defense of persecuted Christians following a new report into their plight.

WASHINGTON -- Speakers at a June 27 hearing on persecution against Christians by governments worldwide lamented the lack of action by many nations, but noted the improvements made by a couple of them.

OTTAWA – The West is turning a blind eye as rabid nationalism poses a growing threat to religious freedom in countries such as India, Russia and China, says a new report from Aid to the Church in Need.