Information service of the Pontifical Mission Societies since 1927
Islamabad (Agenzia Fides) – Praying for peace in Pakistan: this is one of the main tasks being carried out by the Christian community in the country, which is experiencing a moment of great tensions, as a result of the violence and threat from Taliban groups.
As Agenzia Fides learned from Fr. Mario Rodriguez, Director of the Pontifical Mission Societies in Pakistan, the various Christian communities present in the country are praying for peace, holding prayer vigils, Eucharistic Adoration, Masses, and encounters for dialogue with people of the Muslim faith.
A special pilgrimage has been organized in Europe, to visit the cities of Rome, Venice, Padua, Assisi, Lourdes, and Fatima. A delegation of Pakistani Catholics, made up of priests, religious, and laity, will visit shrines in these areas in the days to come, praying for the gift of peace. Organizers told Fides: “During the pilgrimage, we will have our hearts and minds placed on the people of Swat and Malanakd, who are suffering from the violence. We will entrust our country to the prayers of the Holy Father and in visiting the Marian Shrines, we will especially pray for the millions of refugees suffering today in Pakistan.”
Further news has reached Fides, of discrimination and violence suffered by the non-Muslim minorities of the North-West Frontier Province, in an area on the border with Afghanistan. Christians, Sikh, and Hindus have been forced to pay the jazia, the Islamic tax for non-Muslims. The arbitrary fee has been imposed by local Muslim leaders, in flagrant violation of the Pakistani legal system, which does not require such payments. (PA) (Agenzia Fides 5/6/2009)
