Church in Pakistan grows amid persecution
By Ed West, Catholic Herald
The Catholic Church in Pakistan has experienced a "miracle of survival and growth", with a surge of vocations and ever larger numbers joining the faith in spite of increasing threats from Islamic extremists.
Seminary numbers are at a 15-year high, a new Catholic television channel has been launched and Catholic numbers continue to rise, according to a fact-finding mission by the Catholic charity Aid to the Church in Need (ACN).
The visit by representatives of the charity, who conducted in-depth interviews with bishops, priests, Sisters and lay people, as well as visits to key Church communities all over the country, underlined the rise of extremism described in the report as a "Talibanisation" of society. Archbishop Lawrence Saldanha of Lahore, president of the Pakistani Catholic Bishops' Conference, spoke of a new extremist "push" through to southern Punjab close to the country's Christian heartland around Lahore.
With increasing pressure to conform to a strict Islamic culture and dress code, Church leaders said the Christian faithful felt threatened by a growing tide of intolerance, especially in rural areas and in the north of the country, an extremist stronghold thought to be the current home of al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden.
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