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Pakistani bishop in Canada works for persecuted Christians

Retired Archbishop Lawrence Saldanha says Catholics in Canada are not fully aware of the complex problems of the Church in Pakistan
Pakistani bishop in Canada works for persecuted Christians

Former Archbishop Lawrence Saldanha of Lahore with Canadian community of Precious Blood Church in Canada. The prelate works in Canada to help persecuted Christians in Pakistan. (Photo: supplied)

Published: January 16, 2020 07:18 AM GMT
Updated: January 16, 2020 01:50 PM GMT

A Pakistani Catholic archbishop who migrated to Canada after his retirement, says his focus now is on helping persecuted Pakistani Christians who seek asylum in Canada.

Former Archbishop Lawrence Saldanha of Lahore, who moved to Canada shortly after his retirement in 2011, celebrates 60 years of priesthood on Jan. 16. He became a Canadian citizen in 2016.

“We live in a dark and dangerous world that is threatened by climate change, wars, economic hardships, and large-scale migrations. In the past seven years, the problem of asylum seekers has grown acutely,” the 83-year-old prelate told UCA News in an email.

In Pakistan, Church leaders say Christians often become the targets of violence, rape, and harassment and are treated as second class citizens for following a religion other than Islam.

Besides physical violence, the judiciary and governments at all levels are habitually biased against Christians in a country where stringent regulations, such as the blasphemy law which stipulates capital punishment, are used to settle personal scores, they say.

Archbishop Saldanha said his ten years heading Lahore Archdiocese was “stressful.”

Some 1,500 asylum seekers from Pakistan are presently living in and around Bangkok, Thailand, most of them without proper refugee status.

According to Amnesty International more than 1,000 Pakistani Ahmadi Muslims also live as refugees and asylum seekers in Sri Lanka. The island nation also hosts another 200 Christians and Shi’as from Pakistan.

“A few have been successful” in finding asylum but “hundreds are stranded and face misery and hardship in Thailand, Sri Lanka and Malaysia,” said the archbishop

“I would like to help more Christians migrate but I am unable to do so because of Canadian policies. The present mood is not so favorable towards new immigrants. Still, I have appealed to the authorities to admit more Christian refugees on a humanitarian basis,” the prelate said.

About ten parishes in Canada have sponsored Pakistani Christian families. At least 18 families from Bangkok have recently been accepted and are preparing to migrate after at least two years of nervous waiting.

The migration process “is very expensive” and takes more than two years, he said.

Archbishop Saldanha said Catholics in Canada “have little understanding of the complex problems of the Church in Pakistan. It is quite a different situation.”

“I am sorry to observe the growing unjust and inhumane treatment of minorities” in Pakistan, he said.

“They have to deal with an extremist ideology which favors forced conversions of Hindu and Christian girls. The nationalization of Christian educational institutions is another challenge.”

The archbishop said he also helps “some deserving cases of new Pakistani immigrant families who have been sponsored by parishes in Canada.”

When Toronto Archdiocese dedicated its World Refugee Day program to Pakistani Christians last September, the prelate gave a presentation on the challenges faced by Pakistan’s Christians.
They included the exploitation and abuses faced by women from religious minorities.

The Center for Social Justice, a Lahore based NGO, has recorded 160 cases of forced conversions, forced marriages, and related crimes involving minority women and minor girls between 2013-2019.

The organization also documented 16 cases where abducted and converted girls have sought judicial restitution from Pakistan’s southern Sindh province.

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