“We do not need and do not want civil war. We Christians are men of peace. Do not let pain cloud our gaze: may it always be the gaze of Christ and of his Gospel. What future do we want to build for Pakistan? A future of harmony and reconciliation”. These are the words of the Archbishop of Lahore, His Exc. Monsignor Sebastian Shaw, reported by Agenzia Fides, with whom he addressed the crowd of more than 10 thousand faithful who attended, on March 17, 2015, the funeral of the victims of the attack on the Catholic Church of Saint John and the Protestant Christ Church in Youhanabad, a Christian suburb on the outskirts of Lahore. The double attack, committed on Sunday March 15, left 15 dead and more than 80 injured, some of whom died in the days that followed.
Among the victims of the attack on Saint John’s Church, a young Pakistani Catholic, Akash Bashir, became the first “Servant of God” in the history of the Church of Pakistan, on January 31, 2022. The twenty-year-old young man was among the volunteers responsible for ensuring the safety of the faithful outside the church, given the extremely tense situation and the succession of attacks and threats against Christian communities. Akash had assumed this task with a great sense of responsibility, and had not hesitated to sacrifice his life to save those of hundreds of people who were praying inside the church at that time: to stop a suicide bomber, he died with him.
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PAKISTAN – Sacrificing one’s life to save the lives of others: the simple and strong faith of young Akash – Agenzia Fides
PAKISTAN – Sacrificing one’s life to save the lives of others: the simple and strong faith of young Akash – Agenzia Fides
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