According to an X post by ACN, the color red “evokes the color of bloodshed by millions of [Christian martyrs].”
This year, according to ACN, over 10,000 people are expected to participate in Red Week activities scheduled in more than a dozen different countries. Millions more will see the buildings and monuments lit red.
“In a world increasingly marked by conflict, the persecution of Christians and the erosion of the universal right to religious freedom can go unnoticed,” ACN said in a Nov. 6 statement. “The goal of ACN’s initiative, which includes lighting in red monuments and buildings around the world, is to make sure they are not forgotten.”
In the United Kingdom, where many churches and cathedrals will be lit in red, several events and demonstrations were scheduled for “Red Wednesday” on Nov. 22 to bring attention to the suffering in Africa and Nigeria especially.
Religious liberty in Nigeria has been continually worsening in recent years, with massacres, killings, kidnappings, and intimidation a daily occurrence, Nigerian Bishop Wilfred Anagbe told CNA in a June interview.
This January, Father Isaac Achi, a priest serving in the Catholic Diocese of Minna, Nigeria, was burned to death by bandits inside his parish church.
This past Good Friday, April 7, 43 people were killed and many more were injured in an attack at an elementary school in Ngban.
“If you see the video, you would just weep,” Anagbe said. “They came and they slaughtered all of them.”
According to International Christian Concern, 90% of all Christians killed for their faith in 2022 were Nigerian.
ACN UK organized a special Mass on Wednesday at St. George’s Cathedral in Southwark in honor of the suffering Church in Africa. The Mass will be celebrated by the apostolic nuncio to the U.K., Archbishop Miguel Maury Buendía.
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Organizers have also begun a campaign to pray 100,000 decades of the rosary for Africa and to raise funds for the persecuted African Church.
In Austria, ACN held a rally Nov. 15 in solidarity with persecuted Christians in the Stephansplatz square in the country’s capital city of Vienna.
Wolfgang Sobotka, president of the Austrian National Council, voiced his support for the demonstrations in Vienna and across the country in a Nov. 15 ACN statement.
“By illuminating the Parliament, I would like to set an example as president of the Austrian National Council to raising awareness in the fight against the persecution of Christians,” Sobotka said. “It is absolutely unacceptable that people become victims of violence and oppression because of their faith!”
Peter Pinedo is a DC Correspondent for CNA. A graduate of Franciscan University, Peter previously worked for Texas Right to Life. He is a first lieutenant in the U.S. Army Reserve.
