Church leaders praise Pakistan amendment raising legal age for marriage of Christians
(Kate Quiñones. CNA).
Pakistan’s National Assembly unanimously approved the raising of the minimum legal age for marriage to 18 earlier this month, amending a 19th-century law allowing the marriage of Christian children.
dai cattolici solidarietà e condivisione con gli sciiti per l’Ashura
(asianews. Shafique Khokhar).
La Commissione per il dialogo interreligioso e l’ecumenismo (Ccide) ha promosso un “Sabeel” per la comunità musulmana Dawoodi Bohra. Fra gli eventi un “cammino” nell’area della cattedrale e la distribuzione di bevande fresche per rompere il digiuno. La carovana interreligiosa annuale del Rwadari Tehreek Pakistan ha raggiunto Karabla Gamay Shah
Pakistán prohíbe el matrimonio infantil para proteger a los cristianos
(Alfa&Omega).
El Parlamento modifica por unanimidad la Ley de Matrimonio Cristiano de 1872 que permitía casar a menores desde los 13 años
Pakistan court sentences Christian youth to death
(Kamran Chaudhry. UCA news).
Christians stand at the door of their newly reconstructed houses in Jaranwala on Oct. 12, 2023. More than 80 Christian homes and 26 churches were vandalized in a riot in Jaranwala in Punjab province.
A court in Pakistan has sentenced a 22-year-old Christian to death, convicting him of offending Muslims’ religious sentiment that allegedly resulted in last year’s anti-Christian riot in Punjab province’s Jaranwala city.
(The Catholic Herald).
Christians in Pakistan have demanded Punjab officials bring to justice the perpetrators of the brutal lynch mob murder of Nazir Gill Masih in Sargodha. In a report, the Catholic Church’s National Commission for Justice and Peace (NCJP) echoed a statement issued by the Pakistan Catholic Bishops’ Conference condemning the murder and the “persistent misuse of blasphemy laws”. The report stated: “swift and impartial justice must be served to restore faith in the legal system… and to hold police officials accountable for their inaction.” It demanded that “no false blasphemy charges be registered against any Christian and that protection be provided to them.” The report outlined the thorough fact-finding carried out by the NCJP into the events leading up to the spurious blasphemy accusation and attack against Mr Masih, and stated that his neighbours “allegedly had a grudge against Nazir’s family, who are relatively well-off, and his shoe business was doing quite well. “There was also a level of jealousy towards this Christian family.”
(UCAnews reporter).
Some 300 Christians marched on the legislature in Pakistan’s Punjab province at the weekend, joining global calls for the repeal of the country’s draconian blasphemy laws days after a specChristian lynching victim died in hospital.
During the protest on June 8 in Lahore, the provincial capital, the protesters condemned the government for failing to stop recurrent Muslim mob attacks based on false allegations of blasphemy.
The demonstrators placed lit candles on a table around a picture of Nazir Masih, the 74-year-old Christian who died on June 3 days after a Muslim mob attacked and injured him in Punjab’s Sargodha district.
(UCANews. Aftab Alexander Mughal, OSV News).
After being severely beaten by a Muslim mob May 25 in Sargodha, about 150 miles south of Islamabad, the Pakistani capital, a Christian man died on June 3 in a Rawalpindi hospital. Nazir Masih was 72.
June 3 videos from Sargodha showed Christians carrying Masih’s coffin through the street. They shouted “Praise to Jesus” and “Jesus is great.” The casket was draped in black cloth and bore a small crucifix, ABC News reported.
The Christian man died despite twice undergoing surgery and was buried in the city of Sargodha, in eastern Punjab province, amid tight security, said district police officer Assad Ijaz Malhi, according to ABC News.
(Uca News).
Umar Saleem is still traumatized by the abuses and torture he endured in police custody after he and his brother were accused of defaming Islam, which sparked a Muslim mob attack on Christians in eastern Pakistan last year. “I tried to commit suicide during the interrogations,” Saleem, 28, a member of Full Gospel Assembly Church, told UCA News on June 3. Saleem and his family have been living in a shelter house in Punjab province since the religiously charged riot in Jaranwala left at least 80 Christian houses and several churches looted, vandalized and burned to the ground on Aug. 16.
(Luke Coppen. Pillar).
The death of Nazir Masih, a Christian in his 70s, was announced Monday, nine days after he was attacked by a mob in Sargodha, a city in Pakistan’s Punjab province.
The Catholics in Pakistan website published a photograph June 3 of Masih’s body being lowered into the earth in a black coffin bearing a cross.
The website reported that the burial took place in Sargodha’s Mujahid Colony, following a funeral service led by Protestant pastors and attended by Catholic representatives.
Why was Masih killed by a mob? Will anyone be brought to justice? And is life getting worse for Pakistan’s Christian minority?
At least 50 families have returned to the Mujahid colony in Sargodha district in Punjab province
(UCA news Reporter).
Christians have started returning home amid a tense calm after the May 25 mob attack over blasphemy on their colony in eastern Pakistan.
At least 50 families have returned to the Mujahid colony in Sargodha district in Punjab province. More than 200 families, half of them Catholics, had fled after a 74-year-old Christian, Nazir Masih, was attacked by a mob for alleged blasphemy.
Investigation officer Khizar Hayat claimed that the situation was now peaceful. “There is an increased police presence to reassure the local community. Twenty-eight persons have been jailed,” Hayat told UCA News on May 29.
(CRUX. Nirmala Carvalho).
MUMBAI – A May 25 attack on Christians in north-central Pakistan by an enraged Muslim mob, accusing a Christian man of having defaced the Quran, represents a “dark day” for the country’s Christian community, Pakistan’s top Catholic official has said. “I strongly condemn this incident. It’s a dark day for the Church in Pakistan,” Bishop Samson Shukardin of Hyderabad, president of the Pakistan Catholic Bishops Conference, told Crux in the aftermath of the attack. “Without knowing or investigating [the accusation regarding the Quran], the mob attacked a 74-year-old Christian man,” Shukardin said. “Christians are very disappointed and afraid.” Although many observers have long complained that such violent episodes are encouraged by Pakistan’s controversial anti-blasphemy laws, Shukardin said the Church is not calling for those laws to be repealed but rather for good judgment in how they’re applied.
(ANSA).
Una famiglia cristiana è stata attaccata questa mattina a Sargodha in Pakistan. Il quartiere è stato invaso dai fondamentalisti e sono stati appiccati degli incendi.
Lo riferisce l’Associazione Cristiani Pakistani in Italia. “La famiglia è stata falsamente accusata di avere dissacrato il Corano. I musulmani del quartiere hanno dato fuoco alla casa della famiglia e picchiato uno di loro riducendolo in fin di vita”, riferisce la stessa associazione. La vittima, Nazir Gill, è nell’ospedale Dhq e al momento ci sono versioni contrastanti da parti delle fonti locali: alcuni dicono che sta per morire e altri dicono che è morto ma le autorità dell’ospedale non si sono esposte nel dare la loro versione ufficiale.
(Agenzia Fides).
Sarà un tempio dedicato a san Giuseppe, un luogo dove sarà forte la devozione a Maria: la comunità cattolica dell’arcidiocesi di Lahore ha partecipato massiccia alla consacrazione e benedizione della nuova chiesa di San Giuseppe a Gujranwala, nella piana del Punjab pakistano, a ovest di Lahore, in uno dei luoghi dove il seme del Vangelo è stato piantato 70 anni fa dai missionari francescani. Il parroco p. Francis Gulzar e i fedeli hanno dato il benvenuto all’Arcivescovo di Lahore, Sebastian Francis Shaw OFM che, all’inizio del mese mariano, ha presieduto la celebrazione eucaristica di consacrazione, mentre la gente , giovani , bambini, famiglie esprimeva la su gioi con danze e un caloroso benvenuto
(Agenzia Fides).
L’avvocato cattolico Khalil Tahir Sindhu è il ministro per i diritti umani nel governo della provincia del Punjab pakistano, territorio che costituisce il cuore economico, sociale culturale della nazione e dove vive e risiede la maggioranza dei cristiani del Pakistan. Accanto a lui, nel governo provinciale guidato dalla primo ministro Maryam Nawaz, vi è Sardar Ramesh Singh Arora, rappresentante di religione sikh, che è ministro per le minoranze, il primo di quella comunità religiosa ad occupare una tale posizione.