Africa

During the Nov. 23 Angelus prayer, Pope Leo XIV appealed for the release of over 300 children and teachers abducted from a Catholic school in central Nigeria.

The Diocese of Auchi, Nigeria, announced the death of a young seminarian who, along with two fellow seminarians, was kidnapped by bandits in July.

Persecuted Nigerian Christians are embracing U.S. President Donald Trump's designation of their homeland a Country of Particular Concern (CPC) as a long-desired answer to their anguished prayers.

As a paramilitary group announced the capture of el-Fasher, the besieged capital of Sudan's North Darfur state, Catholic Church leaders amplified calls for the protection of "forgotten" civilians -- including thousands of children -- trapped in the western Sudanese city.

The Central African Republic is one of the poorest and most unstable countries in the world. For years, it has been ravaged by civil war, tribal conflicts and a lack of prospects for young people. It was here that a Capuchin priest decided to start something that might have sounded too crazy to many — a music school.

Each day, Dominic Villeneuve extols God for accompanying him as he steps into a Mission Aviation Fellowship (MAF) plane to conduct humanitarian missions within the Democratic Republic of Congo.

Register staff discuss the dangerous skies in Africa for missionaries as well as the ongoing persecution of Christians in Nigeria. Also, a mens' prayer breakfast starts up as well as some faith and rivalry on the football field.

Fr. Oliver Ortese has a message for Catholics and Christians around the world who stand in solidarity with persecuted Nigerian Christians.

The Church in Nigeria, ravaged by kidnappings of clergy, is mourning Fr. Mathew Eya, killed Sept. 19 as he was returning to his parish of St. Charles in Eha-Ndiagu, in Enugu state.

The pontifical charity Aid to the Church in Need expressed its "deep concern and solidarity" with the families of the victims of a brutal attack carried out on the night of Sept. 8-9 in Ntoyo in the area of St. Joseph of Manguredjipa Catholic Parish, which is in the Congolese province of North Kivu.