We are Ireland’s leading charity for protecting the rights of Christians and supporting the suffering and persecuted Church.
About Aid to the Church in Need
Each year we fund more than 5,000 projects in over 140 countries around the world, helping to support the Church in its mission, and bringing hope and solidarity to millions of people. We support important projects which are undertaken by the local Church in the countries where we provide aid, all thanks to private donations, as the foundation receives no public funding.
From building churches to providing catechetical books to emergency aid, our projects range from big to small and cover a whole range of ideas to help nurture the faith internationally and support persecuted and suffering Christians wherever they are in need.
Through every project, Aid to the Church in Need remains committed to standing with the suffering Church and offering practical, spiritual and pastoral support where it is needed most. With the help of our benefactors, we continue to bring hope to persecuted and vulnerable Christian communities across the world.
In 2025, we were able to support 5,368 projects in 141 countries worldwide.
Once again in 2025, thanks to your generous help, we enabled the Church to be a beacon of hope in 141 countries around the world. You entrusted 145.8 million euros to us, enabling us to respond to 5,368 urgent appeals on your behalf.
Mass Offerings
In 2025, we were able to pass on almost 1.9 million Mass stipends to 40,207 priests – supporting roughly one in every ten priests worldwide. On average, Holy Mass was celebrated every 17 seconds somewhere in the world for the intentions of our benefactors. For many priests, this support is a vital contribution to their livelihoods
Supporting Religious Sisters
Thanks to you, we were able to provide subsistence aid to approximately 6,200 religious sisters. We also helped with the formation of novices and the ongoing formation and spiritual retreats of the sisters. We were able to support the purchase of sewing and baking machines, as well as vehicles and necessary construction at monasteries.
Supporting the training of Seminarians
The number of seminarians we supported during 2025 was over one-third higher than in the previous year. In fact, we helped fund the formation of one in every eight future priests worldwide. In Africa, which is currently home to roughly one-third of all seminarians worldwide, ACN helped 8,341 of them with their training. In Asia, there were 2,193; in Latin America, 1,744; and in Europe, 919 – of whom no fewer than 660 were in Ukraine alone.
Projects for Catechists and other Lay Leaders
Through 847 projects, we supported various catechetical and pastoral programmes for children, young people and adults in order to strengthen and deepen the faith of the Catholic laity. And we also helped form lay catechists to nurture Church life where there are not enough priests.
Religious Literature and Bibles
Our faith is nourished by good books and especially by the Holy Scriptures. Thanks to your help, we were able to distribute 520,816 of these books worldwide through 92 projects.
Construction Projects
Vehicles for Pastoral work
In 2025, we supported 791 construction projects. The construction and renovation of churches and chapels, as well as convents, seminaries, presbyteries and pastoral centres. Given the high cost of such projects, construction projects accounted for the highest share of our total aid at 25.1%.
We supported the pastoral outreach in remote and inaccessible regions by funding the purchase of 490 cars, 339 motorcycles, five bicycles, two buses, one lorry and eight motorboats