“In Pakistan,
saving Christians from poverty depends on education.” Oblate Bishop Victor
GNANAPRAGASAM, Apostolic Vicar of Quetta, told the charitable organization Aiuto alla Chiesa che Soffre (Help for the Suffering Church) about “Education
Week” which the Catholic Church in Pakistan conducted from October 31 until
November 6.
The Sri
Lanka-born prelate referred to the widespread illiteracy among Christians, due
to the grave situation of poverty. Poverty often forces the faithful to put
their children to work, denying them the opportunity to get an education. “I
hope that through this initiative of ours, we will be able to convince
Catholics to forego a necessary and timely economic gain in favor of the future
of our children and our country.” Child labor, which in the short term
alleviates serious poverty, denies any prospect for the younger generations to
have skilled employment. Besides a few happy exceptions, the small Christian
minority is now resigned to taking menial jobs, “as if,” continued the
Apostolic Vicar, “they were inevitably destined to do so.”
Pakistani
authorities do not pay much attention to the low level of education – “as
evidenced by the low amount in the annual budget for that purpose” – or the
inadequacy of the national education system, which instead of promoting the
development of the whole person, “is exclusively aimed at obtaining
certificates.”
Besides raising
the awareness of the people about education, “the indispensable condition for
the full development of every human person,” “Education Week” calls upon the
government to take more interest in a problem that afflicts the entire country.
In Pakistan, out of a population of around 180 million inhabitants, 25 million
children are denied the right to study and in the rural areas, two out of three
people are illiterate.
“I hope that the
authorities realize that education is an answer to all the challenges that face
the country: illiteracy, terrorism, poverty, violence,” said Bishop
Gnanapragasam, who is aware that it will take years to arrive at an adequate
education system. “It is a long journey, but it is important to take the first
step. ‘Education Week’ is exactly that.”
In tune with the
Vicar of Quetta, the Apostolic Administrator of the Archdiocese of Lahore,
Bishop Sebastian Francis Shah, says that teachers have a central role for the
future of his country, equal to that of politicians. While visiting the
international headquarters of Aiuto alla
Chiesa che Soffre, the prelate emphasized the need for religious education
for minorities. “While Muslim students in Christian schools have access to the
teaching of Islam, such an opportunity is denied to Christians in state
schools.”
Bishop Shah
recalls Catholic dedication to transmitting universal human values, also to
students of the Islamic faith. “We Christians respect all Pakistanis, whatever their
creed,” concludes the prelate. “Only those who are convinced of their own faith
can respect that of others.” (With the
permission of ACS-Italia)
