Your Impact - New Chapel for Indonesian Village

Thanks to the generosity of Aid to the Church in Need's benefactors, a new chapel has been built in a poor and remote village in Indonesia, giving a growing community of 1,700 Catholics a permanent place to worship.

The Catholic faithful in the village of Golo Popa on the island of Flores had no church of their own. On Sundays, they gathered in makeshift spaces in the village school. However, on weekdays, when the school was in use for teaching, they had nowhere to gather to pray and worship. No place to celebrate baptisms, weddings or other Church activities.

The dedicated parishioners had been collecting money and materials for several years, but it was still nowhere near enough.

That's when their parish priest, Father Ferdinand Tahul, reached out to us for help.

He told us the Catholic community, though very poor themselves, had made great efforts to raise money for a village chapel. Despite their poverty, it was deeply important to them to have a fitting place where they could honour God appropriately.

"The people live their Catholic faith with great joy. Theirs is a very living faith," he said.

Before the new chapel, the faithful held Mass in the village school

When they asked for our help, we responded! Thanks to the generous offerings of benefactors like you, Aid to the Church in Need was able to donate the remaining $48,000 so they could start building.

Now, the new chapel has now been built and consecrated!

Father Ferdinand has written back joyfully to thank you all.

"Thanks to the commitment of the faithful and the generous help we received from ACN, the work is now complete. The faithful all worked very hard and even the women helped with the building work."

"Now our community can celebrate Holy Mass in the new chapel and we were also able to celebrate Christmas there for the first time. We can see how the people are becoming still more involved in the life of the Church and how more and more people are coming to church."

"Our heartfelt thanks for your generous help and may God grant you all his richest blessings!" - Fr Ferdinand, Parish Priest

The consecration of the new chapel in Flores, Indonesia

We thank our benefactors for your ongoing support in our work and mission.

ACN supports hundreds of building projects each year to support poor and persecuted parishes.

You can make an offering to support other Churches waiting for construction here.