As of June 14, 2023, the international pontifical foundation Aid to the Church in Need (ACN) will be headed by Regina Lynch, who for many years has been its project director. As executive president for the next five years, she will take over from Thomas Heine Geldern (71). Cardinal Mauro Piacenza will remain president of the foundation, and Philipp Ozores will also continue to serve as secretary general.
Anton Lässer CP has been the new ecclesiastical assistant of ACN International since mid-April. He replaces Fr. Martin Barta Opus J.S.S., who after thirteen years takes on a new task within his order.
Portrait of Regina Lynch, Project Director at Aid to the Church in Need
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The new CEO, Regina Lynch (66), comes from Northern Ireland. With a degree in literature, she has worked at ACN’s international headquarters in Königstein im Taunus (Germany) since 1980 and has been the project manager since 2008, responsible for some 6,000 projects annually in more than 140 countries. Over the past 43 years, she has traveled to numerous aid recipient countries and maintained contact with ACN project partners, church bodies and other aid organizations.
In her new position, Regina Lynch is responsible for the basic content and management of the pontifical foundation – with its 23 national offices – in accordance with the statutes. In addition, she represents the foundation externally and is supported in her tasks by the Administrative Council and the General Secretariat. As executive president, she reports to the Supervisory Board, which is headed by the foundation’s president, Cardinal Mauro Piacenza.
Lynch received great recognition for her work in 2021, when, as a representative of ROACO (Reunion of the Relief Works of the Oriental Churches), she was able to accompany Pope Francis on his trip to Iraq, where ACN had done decisive work in promoting the return to the Nineveh plain of Christians expelled by ISIS.
With the assumption of Regina Lynch as ACN’s executive president, the organization seeks to continue its important work in serving suffering and persecuted Christians around the world. Lynch, in her own words, stated, «In an ideal world, there should be no need for a charity like ACN, but sadly our service to suffering and persecuted Christians around the world is as necessary as ever. I am both humbled and privileged to assume the position of Executive President of our Pontifical Foundation for the next five years and, with God’s help and the prayers of our benefactors, I will do everything in my power to ensure that ACN remains true to its mission.
In April 2023, Lynch handed over the management of ACN International’s Projects Department to Marco Mencaglia (45), an Italian with a degree in Political Science who has been working at the foundation since 2014, first as head of projects for some countries in Ibero-America and then throughout Europe.
The new international ecclesiastical assistant, Father Anton Lässer CP (62), is Austrian. He first studied business administration and worked as a consultant. After studying theology, he was ordained a priest in 1999 and joined the Congregation of the Passion (CP) in 2007. As international ecclesiastical assistant, he is responsible – together with the ecclesiastical assistants of ACN’s 23 national offices – for the spiritual life of the pontifical foundation.
«With the new executive president, the new ecclesiastical assistant and the confirmed secretary general, ACN is excellently positioned both organizationally and spiritually,» emphasizes outgoing executive president Heine-Geldern. «Regina Lynch knows and loves ACN, and enjoys the highest recognition inside and outside the foundation. She is the guarantee that ACN will continue to evolve in the fulfillment of its mission.»
Heine-Geldern, executive president since 2018, has led the foundation in the face of the challenges of increasing persecution of Christians around the world and the COVID pandemic.
In May 2019, Heine-Geldern received the Path to Peace Award on behalf of ACN from the Holy See’s representation to the UN in New York, which called ACN a «leading spokesperson for persecuted Christians.»
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Pope Francis has received Thomas Heine-Geldern on several occasions and repeatedly conveyed his appreciation for the work of ACN; for example on August 15, 2019, when the Pope blessed at the Angelus prayer 6,000 rosaries subsequently distributed by ACN to relatives of those who have died because of the war in Syria.
Since March 2022, due to the war, ACN has been increasing its assistance to the Catholic Church in Ukraine.
The Pontifical ACN Foundation, founded in 1947, supports Christians around the world who are persecuted or oppressed, or lack the resources for pastoral work, through information, prayer and project funding. This charitable organization relies exclusively on the support of private benefactors and does not accept public subsidies.