Guinea-Conakry

The small country on the West African Atlantic coast has around eleven million inhabitants. With only 5 % of the population as members, the Christian churches of Guinea are a small minority; some 85 % of the population are of Islamic faith. In 2016, we supported the Church in Guinea, especially in the religious formation of religious sisters and laypersons.

The Church in Guinea often feels isolated. Of eleven million inhabitants, only 272,000 are Catholic, and these members are cared for by some 120 priests in just three dioceses. Especially in the 1960s, the churches here suffered heavily under the dictatorship of Sekou Touré, who brutally suppressed the Christian faith and expelled over 200 missionaries from the country overnight in May 1967.

» With our help, we hope to lay the foundation for the better formation of seminarians in Guinea. «

The formation of local priests remains one of the greatest challenges to this day. In November 2008, the first seminary in Guinea, “Pope Benedict XVI” was officially inaugurated, but a further expansion and better facilities for the seminary are urgently needed. ACN has supported the project during all its construction phases, so that priests can be trained here under the best possible conditions.

This is why we were particularly pleased with the words of Cardinal Robert Sarah, who wrote to us: “I am grateful to ACN for its support in helping us train priests, seminarians, religious brothers and sisters, as well as for the construction of churches and spiritual conference facilities for our bishops and priests.”