Bishops express solidarity for the victims of violence among Muslims and pray that it may end
The government bans public religious meetings. "Let us pray in our churches to bear witness of our faith".
Multan (AsiaNews) "Pakistan has experienced number of suicide bombings and bomb blasts in mosques in the recent days," Mgr Joseph Coutts, Bishop of Faisalabad, and Mgr Andrew Francis, Bishop of Multan, told AsiaNews. "Although we cannot say who is doing this, we must however say that these acts are inhuman and barbaric and we strongly condemn them".
Rising tensions between Shiites and Sunnis have led to massacres in different Muslim places of worship causing scores of victims. On October 10, a bomb exploded in a Shiite mosque in Lahore killing four people. On October 7, two bombs killed 41 people injuring more than 100 at a Sunni rally in Multan. On October 1, suicide bombers blew themselves up in the Shiite mosque in Sialkot leaving 31 people dead and 75 wounded.
As the representative of the Catholic Church, Bishop Andrew Francis attended the funerals of the Multan attack victims. He also visited their families to share their grief and sorrow.
Bishop Joseph Coutts of Faisalabad said that the government of Pakistan imposed a ban on all public meetings and religious gatherings. "This is affecting the church in a special way," Bishop Coutts said. "Many conventions and public religious meetings are held throughout the country in the months of October and November and can last up to three days and these events are public expressions of our faith and have an important educational value in preparing Christians."
Most parishes will still hold the events but they will be low key. Instead of congregating in public places or large open spaces people will meet in churches.
"This will certainly reduce the number of faithful participating," Bishop Coutts warned, "but they will continue to pray, celebrate their faith and give witness to it".
The bishops added that they "were praying for the safe return of two Chinese engineers seized in South Waziristan" and "for peace in Pakistan".
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23/09/2004
