The construction of a Catholic church in the Faisalabad diocese of Pakistan took 17 years.
Bishop Joseph Indrias Rehmat of Faisalabad blessed the big new Church of St. Anthony of Padua at Antoniabad Okara, Pakistan, on June 13.
Cardinal Joseph Coutts, Archbishop Emeritus of Karachi, Pakistan, was also present.
"I am happy that the church was completed after a long struggle," said the cardinal.
Seventeen years ago, Coutts laid the church's foundation on June 13, 2007, when Father James Archangelus was its parish priest.
Credit goes to Bishop Rehmat, who improved on the steeples and designed the inside beautifully. There is an overhead loft to add space to the big Church, Fr Bonnie Mendes, a priest of the Faisalabad diocese, told RVA News.
The cardinal and Bishop Rehmat thanked Father Tahir Aziz, parish priest of the Church of St. Anthony of Padua, and parishioners for their financial support and cooperation.
The Papal Foundation, USA supported the majority of the funds.
Over 50 priests of the Diocese of Faisalabad, many nuns, and thousands of lay people were present, including Father Pascal Paulus, the Prior Vice Provincial of Dominicans in Pakistan, Father Khan Polos, Father Abid Tanvir, vicar general of the Faisalabad diocese.
A crane was used to sprinkle rose petals on all the priests gathering in the Church. Supper was served at 10 p.m. for all from faraway parishes and others.
The Diocese of Faisalabad is home to 193,620 Catholics who are spread over 25 parishes, according to Vatican sources for 2022.
The diocese includes the districts of Faisalabad, Jhang, Toba Tek Singh, Sahiwal, Okara, and Pak Pattan, with a total land area of about 35,300 square kilometers.
With a population of nearly 2 million, Faisalabad—also known as the "city of textiles"—is the third-largest city in Pakistan.
The second-largest diocese in the nation is Faisalabad.
There are seven dioceses, including two archdioceses and one apostolic vicariate, in Pakistan, in South Asia.
In a nation of 201 million people, the majority of whom are Muslims, the government of Pakistan reports that there are 1.27 million Christians.
As many as 125 parishes in Pakistan are home to 1,333,450 Catholics, according to the 2018 Catholic Directory of Pakistan. -Santosh Digal
Radio Veritas Asia (RVA), a media platform of the Catholic Church, aims to share Christ. RVA started in 1969 as a continental Catholic radio station to serve Asian countries in their respective local language, thus earning the tag “the Voice of Asian Christianity.” Responding to the emerging context, RVA embraced media platforms to connect with the global Asian audience via its 21 language websites and various social media platforms.
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