Three Christian families in Pakistan have been freed from generational bondage, thanks to an Argentinian priest.
Father Federico Higton paid around A$2,700 to a Muslim businessman to release the Christian slaves.
Father Rico as he is known, has frequently travelled to Pakistan with a young layman known as Diego “with the sole purpose of freeing Christian slaves.”
The priest claims to have helped free 110 Christians so far this year, after gaining the release of 200 last year.
“THESE PEOPLE WHO WERE BORN INTO SLAVERY HAD NEVER KNOWN FREEDOM”
“Thanks to our supporters and their prayers, we were able to rescue 11 people from servitude,” Father Rico told the Catholic News Agency (CNA).
“These people were born into slavery. They had never known freedom.”
“They were not allowed to attend Christian services nor receive sacraments.”
“On the very day of being released from bondage, I was able to give them the sacraments, including baptism. It was a day of dual liberation!”
THE PERSECUTION OF CHRISTIAN SLAVES IN PAKISTAN
Men, women, and children have been subjected to generational hard labour, making bricks to pay off debts, enduring rape, forced marriage, and forced conversion in Pakistan, especially since the 1980s, when relations between Christians and Muslims deteriorated.
Christians have been attacked and murdered there following accusations that they have violated Muslim religious laws.
“Christians suffer from slavery and constant oppression, and their situation is terrible,” Father Rico observed.
“The Christian is considered chura, which in the local language means sweeper.”
“For us, it does not have a negative connotation, but there it is equivalent to saying excrement.”
“SOME OF THEM DON’T KNOW WHAT IT’S LIKE TO BE HUMAN”
Once the Christians are rescued, they are placed in safe communities to rehabilitate.
“After a life of eating garbage, being treated like garbage, and suffering constant violence, some of them don’t know what it’s like to be human,” Diego explained.
“That’s why we have to get them to where they can live in peace, practice Christianity, and raise their children.”
“There, we can teach them that there is a future and that the only thing that they must seek is God and his Kingdom.”
FATHER RICO’S PROJECT TO RESCUE MORE SLAVES
To further assist Christians in need there, Father Rico has launched a project called PaX with Diego as the project manager.
PaX means both “peace” and “Pakistan Christendom.”
Father Rico’s order — the Order of St. Elias — is collaborating with the project.
Diego told CNA that he and another Catholic, Joseph Janssen, visited the country in June to search for an adequate parcel of land to begin building a PaX community.
Janssen is an activist for minority rights in Pakistan and a member of the Neocatechumenal Way, a Catholic movement.
PLANS TO BUILD A COMMUNITY OF 300 TO 400 FREE SLAVES
“The projects we started are still underway,” said Diego.
“They are diverse, always taking into account the abilities and the traumatic past of these poor people.”
The plan is to help the freed slaves earn a living in the PaX community through construction, agriculture, livestock farming, and the production of construction materials.
The first such community is planned for 300 to 400 former slaves and another is in the works.
Diego told CNA that multi-generational enslavement has exacted spiritual and psychological costs on the liberated Christians.
MILLIONS OF PAKISTANIS TRAPPED IN BONDAGE AND FORCED LABOUR
According to the United Nations (UN), between 3.5 million and 5 million people in Pakistan are engaged in bonded or forced labor in which whole families are compelled to work, for example, to cancel a debt or other obligations. Many are children.
There may be as many as one million slaves in the Punjab province alone.
The Pakistani government has outlawed the widespread practice and has taken steps to rehabilitate people released from bondage.
The majority of the slaves are engaged in making bricks, of which approximately 45 billion are manufactured each year in brick kilns across the Asian nation.
The UN has noted in the past that some 20 million people are enslaved in the world, but South Asia has the highest number.
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