Religious buildings, theological education, pastoral aids, aids to priests and missionaries, biblical and media apostolate, humanitarian emergencies: these are the main objectives of the funds raised by "Aiuto alla Chiesa che Soffre" (Acs), which presented its 2005 balance sheet today. With the 74 million euros donated by philanthropists in Europe, North and South America and Australia, 5,852 projects could be accomplished in 145 countries. Acs is an agency incorporated under the Papal Law, founded in 1947 by father Werenfried van Straaten (known as "father Bacon" as he began by collecting this food for the poor families of Central Europe) to support a persecuted and suffering Church. The 2005 balance sheet was judged as "extremely good", with a 6.5% increase compared with the previous year. The projects include the building of the Greek-Catholic seminary of the Holy Spirit in Lvov, Ukraine, for 250 seminarians; the gift of 500 thousand statues of Jesus to the families of the Cuban Church at Christmas; the printing of 100 thousand copies of the Children’s Bible in Tiv language, "God speaks to His children", for Nigeria, where Christians are often attacked by the Islamic extremists. 400 scholarships have been donated to theological education. Acs publishes a "Yearly report on religious freedom across the world": the 2006 edition was presented on June 27th.
