ASIA/PAKISTAN - Courageous witness of tiny Catholic community in Quetta, an impervious region of Pakistan bordering on Iran and Afghanistan

Thursday, 28 September 2006

Quetta (Agenzia Fides) - It is not easy, but the small Catholic community in Quetta keeps the flame of faith burning. Catholics in the apostolic prefecture of Quetta, which borders on Iran and Afghanistan, are mainly subsistence farmers and herdsmen and in their humble life style, prayer and work, these Catholic families bear witness to Christ.
The city of Quetta in Beluchistan Province has a population of about three million. The Catholic community of about 30,000 is in the care of the apostolic prefect Sri Lankan born Father Victor Gnanapragasam, a member of the Oblate Missionaries of Mary Immaculate. “It is not easy to profess the Christian faith in a country where Christians are often treated as second class citizens and where religious minorities are often targeted by radical Muslim groups” local Catholics said in a letter to Fides.
The Apostolic prefect also meets difficulties: “I cannot visit the communities very often but I know that despite hostility and difficulties they continue to gather regularly to pray and listen to the Word of God”.
Fr. Gnanapragasam is assisted by 9 priests and 20 women religious, Franciscans, Dominicans, Good Shepherd Sisters and Sisters of St Joseph. The prefecture runs a school open to Christians and non, it has a Home for people in urgent need of help, orphans, abandoned mothers, very poor families.
Besides the OMI missionaries of the Pakistan province, founded in 1973 and today a community of 15, in Quetta there is also a community of six Salesians. For years the city of Quetta, only 100 km away from the border with Afghanistan, has been a haven for refugees and the Catholic religious provide them with assistance. The Salesians in Quetta run a parish with about 1200 Catholic families, a youth centre for catechesis, recreation and professional training for poor children. (PA) (Agenzia Fides 28/9/2006 righe: 28 parole: 281)


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