This afternoon a liturgical celebration in S. Maria Maggiore Basilica will honour the memory of Fr Werenfried van Straaten on the second anniversary of his death.

Rome (AsiaNews) – This evening at 5:30 pm a mass will be celebrated in the Basilica of  Santa Maria Maggiore in Trastevere in Rome in memory of Father Werenfried van Straaten, founder of Aid to the Church in Need (ACN), on the second anniversary of his death.

The celebration will be presided by Mgr Ternyàk Csaba, Secretary of the Congregation for the Clergy. Other ecclesiastic officials as well as clergymen in Rome on ASN scholarships will take part in the ceremony.

Father van Straaten, a Dutch Norbertine religious, founded Aid to the Church in Need in 1947 to help persecuted Christians and promote the Church's presence in poor countries or where religious freedom was denied or threatened.

Today, the ACN has 16 national sections and is present in 140 countries running 1,500 projects of help and solidarity.

Since 1998 ACN's Italian section publishes a Report on Religious Freedom in the World, which is now in its 6th edition.

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