ACN, like St Joseph, called to let the light of God shine in the world
In a Christmas homily to the staff of Aid to the Church in Need, Cardinal Kurt Koch invited the charity to follow the example of St Joseph, and “to live as stars that point to Christ, the sun of salvation, and become ever more transparent to Him”.
The newly-appointed president of Aid to the Church in Need (ACN), Cardinal Kurt Koch, has told the charity that it should take as its model St Joseph, Jesus’ adopted father.
In a Christmas Mass homily, the cardinal compared St Joseph to a star that “although it fades before the sun and recedes into the background, has thereby become transparent to the sun of Christ.”
“Today, too, we need women and men who offer silent help, who listen to God’s word, who participate in His work of salvation and thereby become a blessing to others. The angel of God will certainly seek out such men and women of silent help among you, the employees of the charity Aid to the Church in Need, and I am certain that he will find them. For in your work, you are called, like Saint Joseph, to live as stars that point to Christ, the sun of salvation, and become ever more transparent to Him.”
“Also and especially in your important work, you are called to live the Christian truth hidden in popular wisdom: the brighter the sun shines, the more the stars fade. This is the innermost truth of the Christian Advent season,” said Cardinal Koch.
The year that is now coming to a close was one of important changes for both the Church and ACN International. A new Pope was elected, at a time when the charity’s international pilgrimage was taking place in Rome, and Pope Leo, who was an ACN project partner in Peru, spoke highly of the foundation’s work during an audience to present the findings of the 2025 Religious Freedom in the World Report.
In a message to ACN staff, executive president Regina Lynch recalled that “Pope Leo’s message to us was one of support and encouragement: ‘Dear friends, I thank each of you for this work of solidarity. Do not grow weary of doing good, for your service bears fruit in countless lives and gives glory to our Father in heaven.’”
“I share his words with you,” Regina Lynch continued, “for it is through your efforts and those of the national offices that we have been able to provide the same level of support to our project partners as in the past year. In fact, by the end of November we had the third highest income in the history of ACN. The two years with the highest income – 2022 and 2023 – were marked by the outbreak of war in Ukraine and the earthquake in Turkey and Syria respectively. In 2025 there have not been any significant major crises. It is therefore especially encouraging to witness the loyalty of so many benefactors and the steady growth globally in the number of new ones,” she explained.
Pope Leo also accepted the resignation of former ACN president Cardinal Mauro Piacenza – to whom, according to Regina Lynch “we will be eternally grateful for his wisdom and spiritual guidance” – and appointed as his successor Cardinal Koch. “Under his leadership and with your work and support we will continue to help the Church in these difficult times where the lack of religious freedom increases and as wars continue.”
Finally, the year also saw the departure of secretary general Phillipp Ozores, after twelve years of service. “In his time here, Philipp was responsible for initiating and accompanying years of important growth of ACN when we saw our potential to help the suffering or persecuted Church to almost double in volume. We are most grateful to him for all that he did for ACN,” said Regina Lynch in her letter.
As the charity looks forward to a 2026 filled with challenges, the charity’s executive president expressed hope for the future.
“While a ceasefire in Gaza appears to be holding at the time of writing, we know at first hand of the growing suffering of the Christian communities in the Holy Land and of the challenges in so many regions of the world: the fall-out from the wars in Ukraine and Myanmar, a rapid spread of jihadism in Africa and increasingly autocratic rulers in some countries of Latin America and Asia.”
ACN’s executive president, Regina Lynch, concluded that “yet, as we approach the Feast of Christ´s Birth, hope and peace are gifted to the world and it is with Pope Leo´s own words that we would like to thank you once more and conclude this letter: ‘The peace Jesus brings is like a fire, and it asks a lot of us. It asks us, first of all, to take a stand. Faced with injustice, inequality, where human dignity is trampled underfoot, where the fragile are silenced: take a stand. To hope is to take a stand. To hope is to understand in our hearts and show in our actions that things must not continue as before.’”
