Where God Weeps - Latest News

Interview with the appointed bishop of Karachi, Pakistan

Thu, 26 Jan 2012 11:06:49 +0100

Yesterday, Pope Benedikt XVI appointed Bishop Joseph Coutts of Faisalabad, Pakistan, as new Archbishop of Karachi, the country's capital. Bishop Coutts was guest on our show in 2009. On the occasion of his appointment, we reproduce the transcript of the interview.

Pakistani christians: second-class citizens?

Interview with Bishop Joseph Coutts

It is increasingly hard to be a Catholic in a Muslim majority country, says the bishop of the Faisalabad Diocese, where Christians are often treated as second-class citizens.

In this interview given to the television program "Where God Weeps" of the Catholic Radio and Television Network (CRTN) in cooperation with Aid to the Church in Need, the bishop speaks about his vocation, the situation of Christians in Pakistan, and the problems associated with the "blasphemy law" in that country.

Q: The official name of Pakistan is the Islamic Republic of Pakistan; therefore it is obvious that the population of Pakistan is mostly Muslim, some 95%. So, the Christians are a minority in a predominantly Muslim country. How is it to be a small Christian Church?

Bishop Coutts: Yes, it is quite a challenge for us living in an Islamic milieu where we are, as Christians something like 2 % and as Catholics about 1% give or take, maybe a little more than 1%.

In fact it's becoming more difficult since recent years with the rising tide of Islamic fundamentalism in Pakistan and in the other parts of the world as well, and we do feel that since recent years things are becoming more intolerant than they were before.

Q: Where are these threats coming from? Who is threatening you?

Bishop Coutts: OK, let us not just use the word threat. As I said the real threat in that sense was in this northwestern province.

Pakistan is a fairly large country; if you compare it with the United States, it's about the size, I think if I'm not wrong, something like Texas and Oklahoma with a little bit more in area with a large population.

The difficulty we have is, for example, there are these Islamic groups who would like to see Pakistan become a purely Islamic state. If Pakistan becomes a purely Islamic state with all Islamic laws which we don't have now; we only have some Islamic laws, if we have all the Islamic laws then it means that as a non-Muslims we would be something like second class citizens.

Islam has a special term for that -- "dhimmi" they call them. We will not be the same. We would not have equality as the constitution talks about. We would have freedom, but it would be a limited freedom. That's what I mean by the threat.

We have some laws that have already been passed, for example, what we call the "Blasphemy Law," we refer to it very often as 295 C -- that's according to the code of law in our country.

Q: What is this "Blasphemy Law"?

Bishop Coutts: It's a very dangerous law because it say that if anybody speaks against or defiles the name of the holy prophet Muhammad, the prophet of Islam, either by word or by writing or by representation, either directly or indirectly the punishment is death.

So there is no mention here, within the law as it is formulated, of intention, whether you do it accidentally, whether you do it out of ignorance, or you do not intend to, it says the punishment is death. Now this is very dangerous [...]

Q: What does it mean for you Catholics?

Bishop Coutts: Actually to be very fair, this law is dangerous not only for Catholics or for Christians or for non-Muslims, but even for Muslims. There is another law. Let me explain a little further.

There is 295 C and there is also 295 B; now B says: If you desecrate the holy Qur'an, the holy book of the Muslims, that is also punishable. So even if you accidentally drop the holy Qur'an you can be punished.

I will give you a very concrete example: in my city Faisalabad, what happened two years ago. We had this poor Christian woman who was doing the cleaning work in the house of a rich Muslim family, while many old papers and cans and old bottles and other stuff were being thrown out of the house.

This woman, she had her old father with her and when they sorted out what could be recycled -- we do a lot of recycling in our poor country, all the cans, papers and bottles -- some papers were to be burned. So he took them out into the little poor area where they were living to burn these papers. The old man, her father, and a Muslim who was passing said: "There is a page of the holy Qur'an in there. You are going to burn the holy Qur'an."

And he created a big noise and everybody gathered and mind you it becomes something really very emotional because a Muslim, quite understandably, gets very disturbed if he hears that his holy book is being desecrated. It became a very big issue. This old man and another Christian were immediately taken to the police station; a case was registered under 295 B: desecration of the holy book.

They are both in prison now; two years have passed; they are fighting their case. The lower court has condemned them to prison for five years. We are appealing in the high court; we can do that.

Our Commission for Justice and Peace has taken it up. Other NGO's have also supported us. Even many moderate, fair-minded Muslims have supported us, but this is the kind of tension we live in.

You suddenly, something you do not expect, something you did not intend to do and you have to pay a heavy price. So all the Christians living in that area are also affected.

Q: How are they affected?

Bishop Coutts: There is a lot of fear.

Maybe the Muslims will attack us. In fact, many of them fled to the bishop's house and we kept them in the parish hall for the night, in fact more than a night, perhaps two or three days, before the emotions could calm down, and so also 295 C is much more dangerous.

Even if a Muslim does the same thing, he faces the same danger. So this is one of the things.

Q: But that is something positive, if you say that it is not just against the Catholics, or against the Christians, but also against the Muslim population?

Bishop Coutts: Statistically at the moment, there are more people in jail for section 295 C than there are Christians, but the danger of the law is, it's very easy to accuse somebody of having spoken against the prophet Muhammad, or saying or even writing something against the prophet Muhammad and then the emotion takes over and that is the dangerous part.

Nobody stops to ask you: "Excuse me, is it true that you did this or said this?" Before you have the chance to defend yourself, everything becomes so emotional.

There have been cases where people have been killed. Those who have been killed for blasphemy, none of them have been killed by the law, by a process of trial.

In fact, we have a few cases that were released by the law; the case was dismissed. But we do have cases where Christians and even Muslims have been just beaten by a mob, killed, or murdered even, stabbed to death.

Q: If we change topic for a moment, there is a special love for the Holy Virgin Mary for Christians and Muslims. How is this in your diocese?

Bishop Coutts: Yes, not only in my diocese but overall because the Virgin Mary is mentioned in the Qur'an, the holy book of the Muslims, and the Muslims regard her as the Mother of the prophet Jesus as they see her, a very holy and pure person, but they would not give Mary the same honor and veneration as Catholics.

Q: What about you own devotion to Mary? Where did you learn it? Where your parents influential in your devotion to Mary?

Bishop Coutts: Yes, because I was born and grew up in a Catholic family; we are practicing Catholics, and in the big city of Lahore, where I was born and grew up, the house was just opposite the church; and at home, mother always insisted on the family rosary and as a boy I was in the junior Legion of Mary.

So I already had it and I grew up in an atmosphere that was such that the devotion to our Blessed Mother was very strong.

Q: Was this one factor that influenced your vocation to the priesthood?

Bishop Coutts: Well looking back, I don't know if I can really focus on any one particular point about my vocation. I would broaden it much more.

We had the Belgian Capuchin Fathers working in our country. There are still a few of them left in Pakistan, and I was very impressed with their dedication and the way they dealt with us. I also studied in a Catholic school and we had the Irish Brothers teaching us.

We had annual retreats, and as I said earlier I had joined the Legion of Mary, so we had a lot of Catholic devotions and being not far from the church, my mother was very much involved with parish activities.

So it was an overall, I think, setting and with the milieu in which I was brought up that fostered this vocation in me. I wouldn't say it was any one particular point really.

Q: Are you the only one of your brothers and sisters?

Bishop Coutts: No, they are not and in fact my brother was not to happy when I joined the seminary.

Q: Why not?

Bishop Coutts: Initially he said: "What? You are becoming a priest, are you serious?" [and that] kind of thing, but now they all appreciate it very much and to even my friends, it was: "You are becoming a priest, you mean it!" That's it the others are not.

You know at that age, when you are in school you have a lot of ideals, and I was very keen on becoming a pilot. I like technical things and engineering either an aeronautical engineer because watching all these movies [...] but there was one movie, now that you have mentioned it, about the "Life of St. Francis of Assisi" and at that time, I don't know if you remember the name anymore, there was a Hollywood actor called Bradford Dillman, I think who use to play the role of a gunfighter or something and when he was there in the role of St. Francis of Assisi; I think that also had some sort of impact that there are other kind of heroes as well, not only wanting to be doing something like becoming a fighter pilot or something else, but there is another kind of heroism to which you can be called and I did have always in me wanting to help others.

I was, thank God, brought up in a family that was fairly well off; we never lacked anything. I got a good education. We had everything we wanted and I always wanted to help others.

* * *

This interview was conducted by Marie-Pauline Meyer for "Where God Weeps," a weekly television and radio show produced by Catholic Radio and Television Network in conjunction with the international Catholic charity Aid to the Church in Need.

Bosnia-Herzegovina: Archbishop of Sarajevo demands equal treatment for Catholics

Thu, 19 Jan 2012 10:40:43 +0100

Eva-Maria Kolmann, ACN International
Adapted by Robert Lalonde, ACN Canada

Catholics in Bosnia-Herzegovina should be treated equally. This was the demand expressed by Vinko Cardinal Puljic, the Archbishop of Sarajevo, during a visit to the international headquarters of the Catholic pastoral charity Aid to the Church in Need (ACN).

In the employment market, in schools and in other spheres of social life, Catholics are systematically disadvantaged, he reported. The aim is to persuade them to leave the country. Church lands and buildings that were confiscated during the period of Communism have not been returned, and building approvals for churches are subjected to years of delay. The government “has no interest in giving the Catholic Church back its property”. Muslim property has been returned, however.

The 66-year-old Cardinal observes the growing Islamisation in Bosnia-Herzegovina with concern. Muslim centres and mosques have been built in many places with petrodollars from Saudi Arabia. In recent years, at least 70 new mosques have been built in Sarajevo alone. There are already 3,000-5,000 Wahhabis (members of a radical Sunni religious movement which is the official religion in Saudi Arabia) in the country, seeking to gain influence within society. “Nobody in the government has the courage to do anything to prevent this development,” said Puljic.

The Catholic Church is the only force in society that strives for the different population groups and religions to live together in peace and equality, the Cardinal said. “We are a minority, but we are a constructive force that wishes to make a contribution to the success of society.”

40 % of the population are followers of Islam, and some 31 % belong to the Serbian Orthodox Church. The remainder belong to other religious communities. Catholics still account for some 10 %. Of the 820,000 Catholics who lived in Bosnia-Herzegovina before the war between 1992 and 1995, only 460,000 remain. Yet the wave of emigration is continuing.

Auxiliary Bishop of Khartoum warns of spreading unrest in South Sudan

Tue, 17 Jan 2012 11:03:07 +0100

by Eva-Maria Kolmann, ACN International

Daniel Adwok Kur, the Auxiliary Bishop of Khartoum, in a meeting with the international Catholic pastoral charity Aid to the Church in Need (ACN), warned of spreading unrest in South Sudan. The government of South Sudan must “deal with the causes of the conflict and sit together with those involved in order to find a solution.” It must “fully investigate” the situation, he demanded. In some localities the situation is “very tense.”

According to the Auxiliary Bishop, these are tribal feuds concerning disputes about cattle, land and property. The Catholic Church can contribute to creating a climate in which those involved in the conflicts could “sit together and negotiate” and in which “real justice can be ensured.”

In recent days, many people have been killed in tribal conflicts in South Sudan, especially women and children. Many thousands have fled to escape the unrest. In January 2011, the population of South Sudan voted for the region’s autonomy in a referendum, and since 9 July 2011, South and North Sudan have been independent states.

Attacks on Christians in Nigeria Continue

Tue, 10 Jan 2012 15:30:51 +0100

Violence Widely Condemned

ROME, JAN. 9, 2012 (Zenit.org).- Thirty more people died in Nigeria over the weekend, the latest victims in a wave of anti-Christian violence that claimed more than three dozen lives on Christmas Day.

Aid to the Church in Need's U.K. director, Kyrke-Smith, joined his voice today to the many other criticisms of the violence.

He called upon authorities in the country to step up action to stop the violence in the north.

His remarks came after last weekend's episode of violence in which 30 people died in anti-Christian attacks in Adamawa State, in the northeast.

Previously there were five separate bomb attacks across Nigeria on Christmas Day, killing at least 40 people.

The group behind the attacks is believed to be the Islamist group Boko Haram, who have threatened further violence if Christians and animists do not leave the north.

There have been warnings of a civil war, along with reports of thousands of Christians and Animists fleeing the north of Nigeria. The country's president, Goodluck Jonathan, has imposed a curfew in some northern states.

Over the weekend Jonathan said he suspected that there were Boko Haram sympathizers in his government, the police and other state security agencies.

Last week Aid to the Church in Need interviewed Archbishop John Onaiyekan of Abuja. He told them that Christians and Muslims in Nigeria come from the same families and have a long history of living and working together.

Archbishop Onaiyekan stressed that after the attacks over Christmas many Muslims wrote to him expressing their sympathy and that eight imams visited him to express condolences.

His remarks were confirmed by the actions of some Muslim youths who organized themselves into groups to guard worshippers in some churches in parts of Minna, Niger State capital.

"We are protecting our fellow Christian brothers and sisters to show the people that our leaders cannot use religion to divide us," they told a local newspaper "Leadership."

The Holy Father condemns the attacks

Benedict XVI is strongly condemning the violence. He mentioned the situation during his address today to the diplomatic corps. And regarding the Christmas Day bombings, he said after the Angelus last Dec. 26: "I learned with deep sorrow the news of the attacks which this year too have brought mourning and grief to several Churches in Nigeria on the Day of Jesus' Birth."

"I would like to express my sincere and affectionate closeness to the Christian community and to all who are affected by this absurd act, and I ask you to pray to the Lord for the many victims," he added.

The Pope urged all to work to restore safety and serenity. "At this time I wish to say forcefully once again: violence is a way that leads only to suffering, destruction and death; respect, reconciliation and love are the only way to achieve peace," he concluded.

The attacks show no sign of stopping. Last Sunday an attempt to plant a car bomb at the Living Faith Church, Kaduna, was foiled by the church's security guards, the Nigerian newspaper "The Moment," reported. The attempt occurred while the Sunday service was in progress.

Vatican agency: 26 pastoral care workers killed in 2011

Mon, 09 Jan 2012 16:28:41 +0100

Vatican City (Agenzia Fides) - Once again this year, the Vatican news agency Fides publishes an annual document of all the pastoral workers who lost their lives in a violent manner over the course of the last 12 months. According to information in our possession, during 2011, 26 pastoral care workers were killed: one more than the previous year: 18 priests, 4 religious sisters, 4 lay people.

For the third consecutive year, the place most affected, with an extremely elevated number of pastoral workers killed is AMERICA, bathed with the blood of 13 priests and 2 lay persons. Following is AFRICA, where 6 pastoral workers were killed: 2 priests, 3 religious sisters,1 lay person. ASIA, where 2 priests, 1 religious sister, 1 lay person were killed. The least affected was EUROPE, where one priest was killed.

OVERVIEW OF CONTINENTS

AMERICA
In America 15 pastoral care workers were killed (13 priests and 2 lay people). They were killed in Colombia (7), Mexico (5), Brazil (1), Paraguay (1) and Nicaragua (1).
In Colombia 6 priests and 1 lay person were killed: Fr. Rafael Reátiga Rojas and Fr.Richard Armando Piffano Laguado killed by gunshot by a murderer who was traveling with the two priests; Fr. Luis Carlos Orozco Cardona, killed by a young man who shot him among the crowd; Fr. Gustavo Garcia, Eudista, murdered in the street by a man who wanted to steal his mobile phone; Fr. Jose Reinel Restrepo Idárraga, killed by unknown persons while he was riding his motorcycle which was then stolen along with other objects belonging to the priest; Fr. Gualberto Oviedo Arrieta, found covered with wounds and knifed to death, in the rectory of his parish. To the list of priests we also add a lay man Luis Eduardo Garcia, a member of the Social Pastoral, attacked by a group of guerrillas, kidnapped and then killed.
In Mexico, 4 priests died and 1 lay woman: Fr. Santos Sánchez Hernández, attacked by an intruder who entered his house, most likely to steal; Fr. Francisco Sanchez Duran, found in the church with wounds to the neck, perhaps in an attempt to stop a robbery in church; Fr. Salvador Ruiz Enciso, who was kidnapped and killed; Fr. Marco Antonio Duran Romero, killed in a gunfight between soldiers and an armed group. To the list we add Mary Elizabeth Macías Castro, of the Scalabrinian Lay Movement, who worked at a newspaper and in contact with migrants, kidnapped by a group of drug dealers and brutally killed.
In Brazil, Fr. Romeu Drago was killed in his home. His body was then brought to about 25 km from his home, where he was burned.
In Paraguay, Mgr.Julio Cesar Alvarez was killed. His body was found in his room, hand and foot bound, with injuries and scratches and strangled.
In Nicaragua, Fr. Marlon Ernesto Pupiro García was kidnapped and killed .

AFRICA
In Africa, 6 pastoral care workers were killed: 2 priests, 3 women religious, 1 lay person. The killings took place in Burundi (2) and DR Congo, Southern Sudan, Tunisia, Kenya.
In Tunisia Fr. Marek Rybinsk was killed, a Salesian missionary, whose body was found dead in a local Salesian school of Manouba.
In Kenya Fr. Awuor Kiser was attacked in a suburb of the Kenyan capital. Shot in the chest with an edged weapon and died because of the serious the wounds.
In R.D. Congo Sister Jeanne Yegmane was killed in an ambush .
In South Sudan Sister Angelina died, while bringing medical aid to refugees.
In Burundi, during a robbery attempt Sister Lukrecija Mamica, of the "Sisters of Charity", and Francesco Bazzani, a volunteer were killed.

ASIA
In 2011 in Asia the deaths of 4 pastoral care workers were recorded: 2 priests, 3 religious sisters, 1 lay person. They died in: India (3) and the Philippines (1).
In India, the priest Fr. G. Amalan was killed in his room by a young man who escaped with a few rupees found in the home; the religious Sister Valsha John, working among the poor, the marginalized and tribal people, killed in her home, a catechist and lay activist Rabindra Parichha, kidnapped and killed.
In the Philippines, Fr. Fausto Tentorio, PIME missionary was killed, who had dedicated his life to the service of literacy and development of the indigenous known as lumads. He was killed while on his way to a priests’ meeting, two gunmen shot him in the head and back.

EUROPE
In Spain, Fr. Ricardo Munoz Juarez was killed by thieves who broke into his home.

Click here to open a MSWord file with biographical information on these people.