Philippines parish cancels planned “online general absolution”

Lahore, Pakistan, Nov 2, 2018 / 02:30 pm (CNA).- Following an outbreak of protests in Pakistan in response the acquittal of Asia Bibi on charges of blasphemy, the government has reportedly begun the process of adding her to a list that would prohibit her from leaving the country.

According to Pakistani news source Dawn, the government have made an agreement with the Islamist political party Tehreek-i-Labbaik Pakistan (TLP), which coordinated the protests against Bibi’s release.

Thousands of angry demonstrators have taken to the streets in the major cities of Islamabad and Lahore, demanding Bibi’s execution.

According to Dawn, in exchange for the TLP halting the protests, the government has agreed to review an appeal of Bibi’s acquittal, and to begin the process of placing her name on the “exit control list,” which would prevent her from leaving the country.

Bibi has not appeared in public following her aquittal due to the protests and concerns for her safety. Prime Minister and former cricket player Imran Khan has called for peace. Khan was elected following a public statement in support of Pakistan’s blasphemy laws, a move many commentators considered to be a sopp to hardline voters and a reversal of his platform as a reforming populist.

Some figures in the Pakistani government have denied that her name will be placed on the exit control list. Her current whereabouts are unknown, with some reports suggesting that she is being held in a secured location.

As part of the reported agreement, the Pakistani government also said to have undertaken to release anyone who was arrested during the four days of protests, and the TLP will apologize to anyone “inconvenienced” by the demonstrations.

Bibi was acquitted of blasphemy charges and her death sentence was overturned on October 30. Protests against her release commenced almost immediately.

The blasphemy charges stemmed from an argument over a cup of water in June 2009.

Bibi, whose family were the only Christians in her village, attempted to drink from a cup of water that had previously been used by Muslims. She was told that she could not, as she was “unclean” due to her faith. An argument ensued, and Bibi allegedly said disparaging remarks about the Islamic prophet Muhammad. Several days later, Bibi was reported to authorities.

She is the first female non-Muslim in Pakistan to be charged with blasphemy. She and her family say she is innocent of the charges.

In 2010, she was convicted of blasphemy and sentenced to death by hanging. In Pakistan, defaming Muhammad carries a mandatory death sentence.

Bibi had repeatedly appealed her sentence. Her conviction was upheld in 2014 before the Pakistani Supreme Court agreed to hear her appeal. During this time, two government officials who expressed sympathy towards her plight were assassinated by Islamic extremists.

The complainant in the blasphemy case has now filed a review petition against the supreme court’s decision to overturn her death sentence and conviction. He has also requested that Bibi be placed on the exit control list until that appeal is heard.

It is unclear where Bibi will go after she is released and if she is permitted to leave Pakistan. Her husband and children lived in the U.K. during her trial and appeals process, and she has been offered asylum by several countries.

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CNA Staff, Aug 27, 2020 / 05:00 pm (CNA).- The Missionaries of Charity canceled their customary birthday celebrations for their founder, Mother Teresa, this year after nine religious sisters tested positive for COVID-19.

Wednesday marked the 110th birthday of Saint Mother Teresa, who died in 1997.

Among other celebrations, the Motherhouse of the Missionaries of Charity, which houses the saint’s tomb, was forced to call off a public nine-day novena, Mass, and children musical event.

Sunil Lucas, a Missionaries of Charity volunteer, said out of nine sisters who have tested positive for COVID-19, seven had recovered as of Aug. 26. She said the sisters have been going out to visit the poor and ill even after the headquarters restricted visitors and gatherings in mid-March due to the coronavirus pandemic.

“These fearless Covid-19 warriors had been going out daily to serve the poorest of the poor. And some contracted the infection,” she said, according to UCA News.

Mother Teresa’s birthday normally draws thousands of visiting pilgrims and sisters. Instead of the usual celebrations, a private Mass was held this year at the saint’s tomb on the morning of Aug. 26. It was celebrated by Father Dominic Gomes, vicar general of the Kolkata Archdiocese.

Catholics normally commemorate the feast day of a saint – which often corresponds with the day they died – but the Missionaries of Charity have continued to celebrate Mother Teresa’s birthday as well. During Mother Teresa’s life, her birthday had been a major celebration at the house.

Last year, an estimated 300 nuns and novices gathered around Mother Teresa’s tomb and sang “Happy Birthday” following a Mass in commemoration of the saint’s birthday.

While visitors were restricted this year, some people still brought flowers and garlands for the saint’s tomb to the front gate of the community.

The sisters also typically host a novena leading up to Mother Teresa’s Sept. 5 feast day. In previous years, thousands of Catholics visit the tomb during these nine days, bringing their petitions to the saint’s grave.

A senior nun told UCA News that none of the sisters are currently permitted to exit the facility and care for the sick on street, but their work caring for residents in several houses – including homes for the poor and orphans – continues. No new residents are currently being admitted, she said.

Mother Teresa was born Agnes Gonxha Bojaxhiu Aug. 26, 1910, in Skopje, Macedonia. After joining the Sisters of Loretto at age 17, she was sent to Kolkata, where she later contracted tuberculosis, and was sent to rest in Darjeeling.

On the way, she felt what she called “an order” from God to leave the convent and live among the poor.

After she left her convent, Mother Teresa began working in the slums, teaching poor children, and treating the sick in their homes. A year later, some of her former students joined her, and together they took in men, women and children who were dying in the gutters along the streets.

In 1950, the Missionaries of Charity were born as a congregation of the Diocese of Calcutta. In 1952, the government granted them a house from which to continue their mission of serving Calcutta’s poor and forgotten. Today, they operate in 176 countries, serving the “poorest of the poor.”

Mother Teresa was canonized in 2016.

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Karachi, Pakistan, Mar 1, 2019 / 12:01 pm (CNA).- Before Sister Ruth Pfau arrived in Pakistan in the 1960s, life for leprosy victims in the country was filled with suffering and ostracization. In addition to the discomfort of the disfiguring disease itself, victims would often be isolated from society by others who feared catching the illness.

But the work of Sister Pfau – a German-born Catholic missionary who devoted her life to eradicating leprosy in Pakistan – transformed the lives of thousands of victims, making such an impact in the country that she became known as the “Mother Teresa of Pakistan.”

“It was due to her endless struggle that Pakistan defeated leprosy,” the German Consulate in Karachi said on Facebook after Sr. Pfau’s death in 2017.

Sr. Pfau was born in Leipzig in 1929, but her childhood home was destroyed by bombing during World War II. After the war, her family escaped the communist regime in East Germany and moved to West Germany, where Sr. Pfau studied medicine.

After joining the Daughters of the Heart of Mary, Sr. Pfau was sent to India to join a mission in 1960. On her way there, she was held up due to visa issues for some time in Karachi, where she first encountered leprosy, an infectious disease that causes severe, disfiguring skin sores and nerve damage in the arms, legs, and skin areas around the body.

In 1961, Sr. Pfau travelled to India where she was trained in the treatment and management of leprosy. Afterwards, she returned to Karachi to organize and expand the Leprosy Control Program. She founded the Marie Adelaide Leprosy Centre in Karachi, Pakistan’s first hospital dedicated to treating the disease, which today has 157 branches across the country and has treated more than 50,000 leprosy victims.

“Well if it doesn’t hit you the first time, I don’t think it will ever hit you,” she told the BBC in 2010 about her first encounter with leprosy.

“Actually the first patient who really made me decide was a young Pathan. He crawled on hands and feet into this dispensary, acting as if this was quite normal, as if someone has to crawl there through that slime and dirt on hands and feet, like a dog.”

“The most important thing is that we give them their dignity back,” she told the BBC at the time.

She was also known for rescuing children with leprosy, who had been banished to caves and cattle pens for years by their parents, who were afraid of contracting the disease themselves.

Sr. Pfau trained numerous doctors in the treatment of leprosy, and in 1996 the World Health Organization declared that leprosy had been controlled in the country. By 2016, the number of patients under treatment for leprosy in Pakistan had fallen to 531, down from 19,398 in the 1980s, according to the Karachi daily Dawn.

The nun won many honors and awards for her work, both from Pakistan and Germany. In 1979, the Pakistani government appointed her Federal Advisor on Leprosy to the Ministry of Health and Social Welfare.

The Pakistani government also honored her with the Hilal-e-Imtiaz, one of the highest awards available to citizens, in 1979, and the Hilal-e-Pakistan in 1989. She was granted Pakistani citizenship in 1988. In 2002 she won the Ramon Magsaysay Award, regarded as Asia’s Nobel prize.

She also authored several books about her experiences, including “To Light A Candle,” which has been translated into English and “The Last Word is Love: Adventure, Medicine, War and God.”

Sr. Pfau died Aug. 10, 2017 after being hospitalized in Karachi a few days earlier due to complications related to age. She was 87 years old.

Pakistani leaders mourned her death, praising her contribution to the well-being of their nation.

Pakistani President Mamnoon Hussein called Sr. Pfau’s work unforgettable, saying, “She left her homeland and made Pakistan her home to serve humanity.” He pledged that “her great tradition to serve humanity will be continued.”

Harald Meyer-Porzky from the Ruth Pfau Foundation in Würzburg said Sr. Pfau had “given hundreds of thousands of people a life of dignity.”

Sr. Pfau’s funeral was held Aug. 19, 2017, and she was buried at the Christian cemetery in Karachi.

An earlier version of this article was published on CNA Aug. 11, 2017.

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