Aid to the Church in Need: Pakistan: From empty promises to action plans

Pakistan: From empty promises to action plans

Posted by Press Release on 13/2/2009, 11:16 am
Board Administrator

ACN News: Friday, 12th February 2009 –

PAKISTAN

From empty promises to action plans

By John Newton

A LEADING Catholic charity has stepped in to fund the rebuilding of a church in Pakistan torched by militants after the government failed to deliver on its promise to provide compensation.

Aid to the Church in Need agreed a $60,000 plan for a complete rebuild of St Mary’s Catholic Church, Sukkur, in Pakistan’s Sindh province following three years of government delay over its compensation pledge of spring 2006.
The government’s promise of funding came just weeks after both St Mary’s and the nearby St Saviour’s Protestant Church were burned by Islamists, who broke into the buildings, smashing everything including statues. They even tried to break into the tabernacle.
Frustrated by continued government failure to provide the compensation, Bishop Max Rodrigues of Hyderabad has now hit out at the authorities.
In a letter to ACN, the charity for persecuted and other suffering Christians, the bishop wrote: “The government made tall promises of restoring the churches as quickly as possible, but due to corruption and greed and red tape, very little was sanctioned and still less done.”
Lamenting how three years on the church remains a ruin, he continued: “We feel ashamed to say that the charred rubble and dirt still lies in our church.”
Although technically granted the funds for rebuilding twice, the money never reached the Church.
The funding was withdrawn on both occasions after rebuilding work failed to start within the specified time period – even though it was not the Church’s fault in either case.
In his letter, submitted in support of his application for ACN help, Bishop Rodrigues wrote: “The money that had been sanctioned has lapsed twice and our people still celebrate the Holy Eucharist in the open air or the school hall.”

(Bishop Max Rodrigues of Hyderabad and a religious Sister, with Bibles burnt in the anti-Christian riots in Sukkur, Pakistan during Feb. 2006)

At the time of the atrocities, on 19th February 2006, staff from ACN had just arrived in Pakistan and immediately offered to help rebuild the church after coming to visit it.
But Bishop Rodrigues asked the charity to wait for the government’s compensation bid to come through before giving top-up funding as necessary to extend the building to provide for a growing congregation.
The bishop described how thereafter ACN offered reconstruction aid on several occasions, adding that he turned it down in a bid “to force the government to rebuild the church as it promised”.
It was only when he had given up on government aid that he finally accepted the charity’s help.
He continued: “I am most grateful to Aid to the Church in Need for its strong human, moral and financial support for our aggrieved Sukkur People and Church when they most needed it.”
Both St. Mary’s Catholic Church and St. Saviour’s Protestant Church, granite-built churches dating from 1889, were substantially damaged in the riots which were sparked by a rumour – later found to be untrue – that a Christian had burnt some pages of the Qur‘an.
Franciscan Sisters at St Mary’s almost lost their lives after the mob attacked their convent with petrol bombs, setting fire to almost everything in the compound.
Protestant pastor Rev Ilyas Saeed and his family of eight children had to jump from a window in their home to escape the flames engulfing their home next to St Saviour’s Church.
The attacks coincided with widespread anger across the Muslim world over cartoons published in the West depicting prophet Mohammed.
In his letter to ACN, Bishop Rodrigues concluded: “This is a time of persecution for the Church but the Christians of Sukkur are holding true to their faith in spite of violence and intimidation.”

Editor’s Notes:

Directly under the Holy See, Aid to the Church in Need supports the faithful wherever they are persecuted, oppressed or in pastoral need. ACN is a Catholic charity – helping to bring Christ to the world through prayer, information and action.

Founded in 1947 by Fr Werenfried van Straaten, whom Pope John Paul II named “An Outstanding Apostle of Charity”, the organisation is now at work in about 145 countries throughout the world.

The charity undertakes thousands of projects every year including providing transport for clergy and lay Church workers, construction of church buildings, funding for priests and nuns and help to train seminarians. Since the initiative’s launch in 1979, 45 million Aid to the Church in Need Child’s Bibles have been distributed worldwide.

For more information, please contact the Australian office of ACN on (02) 9679-1929. e-mail: info@aidtochurch.org or write to Aid to the Church in Need PO Box 6245 Blacktown DC NSW 2148. Web: www.aidtochurch.org

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Aid to the Church in Need PO Box 6245 Blacktown DC NSW 2148 ABN: 62 418 911 594
Ph/Fax (02) 9679-1929 e-mail: info@aidtochurch.org web: www.aidtochurch.org