All Australia and NZ Archdioceses Join Red November

For the first time, every Catholic archdiocese in Australia and New Zealand will unite behind Aid to the Church in Need's Red November campaign this month. Thirty-two dioceses across the two countries have confirmed they will take part, including every archdiocese and four Eastern Catholic eparchies, in a show of solidarity with Christians facing persecution around the world.

Picture Sydney's St Mary's Cathedral glowing deep red against the night sky, candles flickering in the hands of the crowd gathered outside. That image will repeat across two countries on Red Wednesday, 18 November, when more than 20 cathedrals in Australia and New Zealand are lit red. Behind the colour is a number that stops you cold: around 220 million Christians were directly exposed to persecution in 2023.

A First in the Campaign's History

The scale of this year's participation is itself the story. Diocesan involvement in Red November has more than tripled since 2023, and this is the first year that every archdiocese in Australia and New Zealand has signed on. CathNews reported the milestone on 6 November, while Catholic Outlook, the publication of the Diocese of Parramatta, carried the announcement a day earlier.

That kind of unity does not happen by accident. It takes months of planning, parish by parish, diocese by diocese, until a campaign that once belonged to a handful of committed churches becomes something the whole Church owns together. For the Catholics of Australia and New Zealand, Red November is no longer a cause for the few but a cause for all of them.

The campaign is run by Aid to the Church in Need (ACN), the pontifical charity that supports Christians living under pressure, threat, and outright violence. Each November, ACN asks churches to light up red, to pray publicly, and to tell the stories of believers who cannot worship freely. This year, Australia and New Zealand have answered louder than ever before.

220 Million Christians, and the Number Keeps Growing

The reason for the campaign is laid out in ACN's recently released report, Persecuted and Forgotten? 2024–2026. The report found that about 220 million Christians were directly exposed to persecution in 2023. In 55 per cent of the countries surveyed, the oppression facing Christians got worse, not better.

ACN puts the wider figure even higher, citing more than 388 million Christians persecuted for their faith. Behind those numbers are real people: families driven from their homes, churches burned, priests and pastors threatened, and whole communities forced to practise their faith in secret. The report's message is blunt, and it is the reason Red November exists at all.

Christians in Australia and New Zealand have been hearing these numbers for years. The difference this November is that the response has grown to match the scale of the problem. When every archdiocese stands together, the statement is harder to ignore, both inside the Church and beyond it, and readers who followed the earlier findings will recognise the pattern in Christian Persecution Report Today: Conditions Worsened in 55% of Countries, None Improved, where the same grim trend was already visible.

What Happens on Red Wednesday

The heart of the campaign is Red Wednesday, 18 November, when churches and iconic buildings are illuminated in red. The colour is deliberate. Red is the colour of martyrdom in the Christian tradition, and it is meant to make the suffering of persecuted believers impossible to walk past without noticing.

In Sydney, St Mary's Cathedral will hold a Red November Mass on Wednesday 18 November at 5:30pm, with the cathedral lit red for the occasion. In Parramatta, Bishop Vincent Long will celebrate Mass at St Patrick's Cathedral on 25 November at 7pm. Across both countries, more than 20 cathedrals will glow red through the month.

Cardinal Mykola Bychok, ACN's Red November Ambassador, has encouraged Catholics to offer Masses and prayers throughout November for those who suffer for their faith. His message is simple: prayer is not a small thing, and public prayer is a witness. When a cathedral turns red, it tells the city around it that someone, somewhere, is paying a price for believing.

A Campaign That Spans the Globe

Australia and New Zealand are not acting alone. Around the world, more than 125,000 participants are expected to take part in Red November, along with 130 cathedrals and over a thousand churches and buildings. The red light will cross borders, time zones, and languages.

In the Philippines, all 87 dioceses will join the campaign on 25 November, another striking show of national unity. In Europe, the European Parliament buildings in Strasbourg will be lit red on 23 November, bringing the message into the heart of the continent's political life. From Manila to Strasbourg to Sydney, the same colour will carry the same message.

That global reach matters because persecution is a global story. The Christians being remembered in Red November live in Nigeria, in the Middle East, in Asia, and in places where their names rarely make the news. The campaign gives them a night when the world, quite literally, lights up for them.

The same spirit of solidarity has shaped other recent moments of prayer for the persecuted, from Today: International Day of Prayer for Persecuted Christians 2026 Focuses on Bassam to the Arise Africa Petition Today: 919,600 Signatures to Protect Persecuted Christians. And the suffering behind those prayers is painfully real, as seen in 17 Kaduna Worshippers Died in Captivity, 4 Still Held and the warning carried in 200 Bishops Warn Middle East Christians May Disappear as Gaza Community Falls to About 500. At home, Australian believers are also making space for their faith in new ways this November.

For now, the preperations continue, with parishes organising Masses, schools planning prayer services, and cathedrals testing their lights. The first-time unity of every archdiocese is already a milestone, whatever happens next. The question is whether it becomes a turning point, the year Australia and New Zealand stopped treating persecuted Christians as someone else's concern and started treating them as family.

On 18 November, the answer will be written in red light across the skyline of two nations. And when the lights go out, the real test begins: whether the prayers and the promises made under them carry on into the months that follow. The persecuted Church will be watching, and so will the world.

But the most surprising part of this story is yet to come — keep reading.