For example, three recent news bits on their work:
A first delivery of 20,000 copies of Aid to the Church in Need´s (ACN) Bibles for children “God speaks to His children” is currently being transferred to the Czech Republic. 10,000 of the copies are meant for the use of Hradec Kralove diocese, while the other 10,000 copies are for the remaining dioceses of the country. The new Czech translation of the Bible for children contains 30 pictures, in addition to the 49 already existing in the book.
According to the Bishop of Hradec Kralove, Mgr Dominic Duka, the Bibles delivered to his diocese are meant to be promoters of a special Year of the Bible that he has declared for 2007. “Although the religious revival has slowed down a little bit, the arrival of the Bible for children will certainly help to keep it alive,” the bishop stated. Also, ACN`s Little Catechism “I believe” is currently being translated into Czech.
Khartoum. “The position of our archdiocese is strong mainly due to the support we received from Aid to the Church in Need (ACN) over the past few years,” Auxiliary Bishop Daniel Marok Kur Adwok told Christian Klyma, ACN’s Austrian public relations officer, recently when Klyma visited him in Khartoum. “While 25 years ago there was only 1 priest in Khartoum, nowadays we have 121. Our archdiocese has 30 parishes and 123 centres where the Eucharist is being regularly celebrated. Of the archdiocese’s about 18 million inhabitants, more than 900,000 are Catholics,” he added.
With regard to an envisaged transfer of St Paul’s seminary to Juba in the south of Sudan, the Bishop said that it was due to be transferred “in 2007 – starting with the Philosophy seminarians.” At the moment, 7 teachers are giving lessons to 73 candidates. Khartum archdiocese also has the “Save the Saveables” project: It currently has 65 schools with some 33.000 pupils and 1050 teachers. The project tries to give adequate education to schoolchildren who have come to Khartoum fleeing from the south of the country, where since 9. 1. 2005 a peace agreement is vigil.
With about 16.000 Catholics, the Catholic minority is just less than 1 percent of the country’s 2 million people. There are some 11.500 Greek Catholics and the rest is Latin rite,” Father Dr Emmerich Tempfli said Jan. 9., referring to a recent trip to Macedonia. “This small Catholic minority needs our support,” he stated and explained: “Together, they have 25 churches and chapels. 15 priests – both Greek and Latin – are serving the faithful. 11 seminarians are training for the priesthood.” He added that 6 of the seminarians were studying in Rome, 4 in Fulda and 1 in Zagreb.
Several Senegalese dioceses have asked the international Catholic charity Aid to the Church in Need (ACN) for copies of its Bible for children “God speaks to His children” and – given Senegal’s illiteracy rate of about 64 percent – posters with motives from the book, as well as copies of the Little Catechism “I believe.” Senegal, a western African country, has a total population of about 11 million. Only 5 percent are Catholics, while some 95 percent are Muslims.
Mgr Ernest Sambou, Bishop of Saint-Louis, in the north of the country, stated in a letter to ACN: “The book ‘God speaks to His children’ will be an indispensable tool to discover the word of God for the children. It will also help their formation and education.” Regarding the Little Catechism, Bishop Sambou added: “It is indeed simple and clear, so it can help every Christian.”
ACN intents to send copies of its Bible for children in basic French (“Francais fondamental”) and of the Little Catechism in French, Senegal’s official language. But the bishops also asked for a translation of “God speaks to His children” into Wolof, the nation’s most widespread language, spoken by some 45 percent of the population.
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