Christians live in fear in ‘Talibanized’ Pakistan

TORONTO - Fear has silenced the voice of Pakistani Christians since the political murder of Shahbaz Bhatti last spring, said the retired archbishop of Lahore.

“People are very sad, very bitter. They said, ‘If that happens to him what happens to us?’ ” Archbishop Lawrence Saldanha said.

Bhatti’s killers remain at large. The convicted murderer of former Punjab Province governor Salman Taseer was greeted in court with rose petals and garlands. In an atmosphere of impunity for anyone who kills a Christian, educated Pakistani Christians are getting out of the country. Those who remain are keeping their heads down and their mouths shut, said Saldanha.

“In such a situation, minorities don’t have much place. There’s no tolerance for other religions,” he said. “Either you convert or you leave. This is the choice.”

Saldanha moved to Toronto in early November, joining his extended family in the city’s east end, where he hopes to involve himself locally in parish ministry.

Bhatti was Pakistan’s minister responsible for minorities. He was killed March 2. Taseer was murdered by his own bodyguard Jan. 4. Both men spoke publicly against Pakistan’s blasphemy laws.

Waves of suicide bombings, targeted killings and death threats against Christians have human rights campaigners and staff for the Pakistan bishops’ justice and peace commission keeping their statements low key and their names out of the papers. Even educated Muslims in Pakistan’s big cities have turned against the country’s religious minorities.

“The mentality is changing, especially among the middle class and lower middle class,” said Saldanha, who headed up the justice and peace commission over the past 10 years. “They are being Talibanized.”

For the last year, Lahore’s Sacred Heart Cathedral has been guarded by three sharpshooters in concrete guard posts erected on either side of the compound entrance and next to the parish hall. Concrete barriers have been placed at the entrance and around the bishop’s house to slow down drivers and minimize the possibility of a suicide bomber getting close to the church.

But despite the risks Christians face, “the churches are packed,” said Saldanha.

“They need to turn to God for any kind of help,” he said. “People are very adaptable, very resilient. They accept and go with the flow. They remain happy and active. They come to the church and fill up the church. They feel they get some consolation from that.”

But if they can get out, Pakistani Christians are heading for Canada, Australia and England, said the archbishop. It’s left the archdiocese with a shortage of qualified lay people to run schools, hospitals and other institutions. In some cases religious sisters have been able to step in, but in many cases schools lack principals and qualified teachers.

“We are left with the mass of very poor, uneducated people,” Saldanha said.

There are 1.4 million Catholics and another million Protestants among Pakistan’s population of 177 million. Officially an Islamic republic since 1956, Pakistan was broken off from India in 1947 to provide a homeland for Muslims in the Indian subcontinent. More than 60 years later the country faces enormous challenges, said Saldanha.

Saldanha was ordained a bishop and took over the archdiocese of Lahore Sept. 11, 2001, the day of the terrorist attacks on the United States.

“That sort of marked the tone of my episcopal ministry after that,” said Saldhana.

As a doctoral candidate in systematic theology at the Pontifical Urbaniana University in Rome, Saldanha was a first-hand witness to the Second Vatican Council. As a priest in Pakistan he edited a Catholic newspaper, ran Caritas Pakistan, was rector of Christ the King Seminary, established a radio service and headed up the social communications commission for Pakistan’s bishops.

Over 50 years as a priest, Saldanha has seen his country slide from corrupt oligarchy to military rule to mob rule.

“Everything is a big mess there — economically, socially, religiously,” he said.

While in theory democracy should create a better environment for minorities, majority rule in Pakistan right now would be a disaster for the Christians, according to Saldhana.

“The majority are pro-Islamic and they will vote for strict Islam,” he said. “If you have democracy, Islam will surely win, especially in the north.”

Already at the mercy of trumped up blasphemy charges, Christians under a strict form or sharia law would be practically erased from the public life of the nation, said Saldanha.

“It’s not really democracy. They have hardly any legislation at all. The president and the prime minister call all the shots, without any reference to parliament.”