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2025-11-27

  • Hundreds Kidnapped in School Attacks

    A man is bent over a church bench, praying earnestly. His Bible is beside him; his glasses rest on top of the Bible.
    Photo: Unsplash / Samuel Martins

    Shock and grief have spread through Niger State in central Nigeria after gunmen raided a Catholic boarding school in the village of Papiri on November 21st, taking 303 students and 12 staff members captive. According to the Christian Association of Nigeria, 50 of the kidnapped students managed to escape within the first two days and have been reunited with their families, leaving 265 still missing.

  • Pastors Released from Prison

    There are two images. In the first, Pastor Zhang Shaojie embraces his mother. The second image, Pastor Xing Wenxiang is bent over, working on a project in her hands.
    Pastor Zhang Shaojie (left) and
    Pastor Xing Wenxiang (far right)
    Photo: ChinaAid

    In November 2013, Pastor Zhang Shaojie was arrested on charges of fraud and "disrupting public order." Despite multiple appeals, the church leader was sentenced to 12 years in prison. His family reported that, while imprisoned, Pastor Zhang suffered mental and physical mistreatment – including a time of "concentrated education." With great thankfulness, he completed his sentence this month and has since been freed from prison.

  • Priests Pardoned by the Nation's Presidential Leader

    Father Henryk Akalotovich and Father Andrzej Yuchniewicz are standing with Archbishop Ignazio Ceffalia and Archbishop Iosif Stanevsky.
    Father Henryk (second from left) and Father Andrei
    (second from right), along with two archbishops.
    Photo: Catholic.by

    Two Catholic priests who had been convicted and sentenced to more than 10 years in prison were pardoned and freed from a Belarusian labour camp on November 20th. State media claimed that the church leaders, who were granted clemency by President Alexander Lukashenko, had been "convicted of serious crimes against the state, as well as other crimes."