Catholics pray for persecutors during Marian festival

About a million Catholics prayed for terrorists´ change of heart during Pakistan´s most popular Marian pilgrimage.

Devotees pray and burn candles at the shrine in Mariamabad

“We place the rehabilitation work for attacked Christians at the feet of Mother Mary. Let us pray and fast for the transformation of terrorists involved in the recent anti-Christian violence,” Father Emmanuel Asi said in his address to Marian devotees. “We are a complete part of this country and want to become instruments of peace,” added the priest, executive secretary of the Catholic Bible Commission of Pakistan.

More than a million people attended the Sept. 4-6 program, the 60th annual pilgrimage to the National Marian Shrine in the Christian village of Mariamabad, literally the “city of Mary.” The Marian shrine in Lahore archdiocese traditionally draws several hundred thousand of Pakistan´s 1.6 million Catholics, as well as some Muslims. The event is keyed to the Sept. 8 feast of the birth of the Blessed Mother.

Archbishop Lawrence J. Saldanha of Lahore celebrated morning Mass on the first two days of the pilgrimage, while his assistant, Auxiliary Bishop Sebastian Shah, took over on the last day.

Father Asi, who spoke during the Sept. 5 Mass, also demanded the repeal of the country´s controversial blasphemy laws. “The laws deserve to be changed to prevent persecution of innocent Pakistanis, half of the victims poor Christians,” he later told UCA News.

Capuchin Father Mehboob Evarist, who spoke on Sept. 4, also addressed Christians´ plight. “You may be weak and poor, but persecution cannot deter your faith. Pray for those who hurt you,” he said.

Blasphemy laws make an insult to the Qur´an an offense punishable by up to life imprisonment, while conviction on a charge of insulting Prophet Muhammad brings an automatic death sentence. Church leaders have long charged the laws are being abused for personal gain and to stoke communal hatred.

In a recent incident, 10 Catholics were killed in rioting in Gojra and the nearby village of Korian. A Muslim mob vandalized and looted 113 Christian houses and damaged four Protestant churches in these Punjab province areas on July 30 and Aug. 1. Pages containing Islamic inscriptions had been found in front of a Christian home in Korian, and some Muslims accused the family of blasphemy, triggering the violence.

Archbishop Lawrence J. Saldanha of Lahore inaugurates the 60th annual pilgrimage to the National Marian Shrine

In Mariamabad, young priests kept the congregation animated. People sang and clapped to hymns in praise of the Blessed Mother in the evenings and during intervals between Masses. Prayer sessions for the sick were also conducted.

Meanwhile, pilgrims kept arriving on foot, in bullock carts, or on bicycles, buses and trucks. The compound of the Church of St. Mary and St. Joseph, where the shrine is located, was packed with people staying there, while stalls outside bustled with customers.

Archbishop Saldanha inaugurated the festival by leading a procession of 20 priests that followed a palanquin bearing a statue of the Blessed Mother. People kept showering rose petals and money on the palanquin as it made its way through the streets of Mariamabad before returning to the church.

According to Father Mushtaq Pyara, secretary of the pilgrimage committee, local police cooperation made the event possible.

“Some pastors received threatening phone calls from unidentified persons who warned of attacking the annual gathering and reducing it to a pile of ashes,” he said.

“We therefore asked the Punjab government to provide security and held continual meetings with police officials, which resulted in a three-day ban on using loudspeakers in mosques in villages surrounding Mariamabad.”

Mosque loudspeakers have sometimes been used to broadcast calls for violence against religious minorities.