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The commitment also includes a fund to be established for the families so that they can eventually support themselves through income generating projects in the longer term, such as livestock rearing and horticulture.

He called on the Pakistan government to provide masks, gloves and other COVID-19 protective equipment for sanitary workers and domestic workers—many of whom are Christians.

“I did not beg them for bacon, money or clothing. I only begged for love and at the very end I asked whether they would join me in praying for their suffering brothers in Germany. They prayed with tears in their eyes.”

According to Muhammad [one of the kidnappers], they had killed Michael because he kept asking them to repent and turn their lives around from their evil ways.

“the gravity of the situation is unchanged, and indeed in some places even worse” than before the pandemic, with almost a million people left homeless and a total absence of any effective response from either national or international authorities.

Yet, despite his confidence in the government, the bishop warned that “we have to be on our guard, nonetheless, as the reactions of the fundamentalist Muslim extremists are unpredictable.”

“I asked myself why it was that I organized an occasion to honor the mother of God and this would happen on this same day. I wondered where our Mother was that she could not intervene but allowed these people to suffer.”

“The ‘Christian people’ of Turkey’ are extremely cautious, given what they have been through.”

“There are many financial interests and those who are funding all this are finding fertile ground due to the poverty, the lack of opportunities and the resulting youth unemployment.”

“We are gradually getting a feel for how art, evangelization and respect for the culture can all work together to help us understand one another.”