ASIA/PAKISTAN-"Family" and "Year of Faith" at the center of the Easter celebrations

Lahore (Agenzia Fides) – The attention towards family, the cradle of Christian life, and the beginning of the Year of Faith - expected next October –marked the Easter celebrations of the Church in Pakistan, says to Fides Bishop Sebastian Shaw, Apostolic Administrator of Lahore and President of the Commission for Catechesis in the Catholic Bishops Conference. "The family is the cradle of faith: we learn to pray in the family, the first Christian testimony is lived. For this reason, starting from Easter 2012, we want to put the family at the center of the ministry, in order to live fully and with fidelity to the Holy Father, the upcoming Year of Faith" he explains. For the occasion, the Christian community in Pakistan has decided to publish the first two parts of the Catechism of the Catholic Church translated into urdu, thanks to the joint work of a layman, Emmanuel Nino, and a missionary from St. Columba, Fr. Robert McCulloch.
During the Easter days in Pakistan the turnout of the faithful to the celebrations of Holy Week was massive, especially young people. Mgr. Shaw notes that "the Easter celebrations is the time when the whole community 'is full' of God's grace, the strength that comes from His Word, and then to witness it and live it in every day difficulties and challenges." The life of the Christian minority in Pakistan, in fact, is marked by violence, intimidation and persecution, but thanks to a capillary work of "good relations, dialogue, coexistence, friendship, in civil society the majority of Muslims – notes the Bishop - seem increasingly convinced of the indispensable need to join in on values such as respect for human dignity, life, freedom of faith. " This attitude, he concludes, "is an antidote to the growth of religious intolerance, promoted by some fundamentalist groups, and gives us great hope for the future." (PA) (Agenzia Fides 11/4/2012)