Church in the World

Persecution of Christians in Pakistan on the increase. Intolerance against the Christian minority in the overwhelmingly Muslim country of Pakistan has increased in recent years, according to Bishop Joseph Coutts of the diocese of Faisalabad. While day-to-day relations between Christians and Muslims continue to be relatively peaceable, there are at the same time radical Islamic groups in Pakistan who are seeking to impose a militant form of Islam, the bishop alleged during a recent visit to the Catholic charity Aid to the Church in Need

South Asia

These Muslims were committed to the introduction of still more radical Islamic laws in order to turn Pakistan into an exclusively Muslim land; meanwhile, even the existing laws, including notably the blasphemy law, were already making their project easier, the bishop added.

Only one or two per cent of the 132 million Pakistanis are Christians. But thanks to their strong social commitment they have earned the esteem of the rulers and large sections of the population, Bishop Coutts argues. In his own diocese, where 140,000 Catholics live among a population of 30 million people, the Catholics organise anti-drugs workshops, run a school for the blind and provide medical treatment and care for many sick people. A further problem for the Church is the acute shortage of priests although there are a handful of foreign missionaries in Pakistan, the bishop pointed out that they alone could never supply the need for priests and religious.

During recent years Aid to the Church in Need has helped the diocese of Faisalabad with numerous projects, including the construction of chapels, the training of major seminarians, the provision of transport for pastoral work and Mass stipends for the support of its priests. For the Church in Pakistan as a whole, the charity has contributed over ?800,000 over the last five years. |snip!|Kerala bishops restrain happy-clappy healers. The 27 Catholic bishops in Kerala, from the Latin, Syro-Malabar and Syro-Malankara rites, have issued a joint pastoral letter restricting the activity of certain retreat centres which operate under their authority, Fr Abraham Adappur SJ reports from Kerala.

Charismatic teams have recently emerged in Kerala laying stress on the gifts of the Holy Spirit, with much community singing, hand-clapping and loud prayers seeking miraculous cures for the sick. In addition to the priests who initiated this movement, a number of lay men and women have joined it.

Huge crowds, including thousands of non-Christians, have been attracted by the services, but there have been complaints of some retreat centres misleading the people and allowing errors to creep into Church teachings. These are due, the bishops say, to lack of proper theological formation of the preachers. The bishops are to ask parish priests and others concerned to make enquiries before inviting preachers to address the people.

Archbishop Daniel Acharuparambil, president of the Kerala Catholic Bishops? Council, accused one retreat team centred on Devikulam in Idukki district of being guilty of deviant teaching on non-Christian religions and life after death. The local bishop has banned the team from preaching.