The year was 1986. Sister Genevieve Ram Lal was being driven away from Lahore High Court when she noticed armed men in a car following her.

“We were fighting a case for abducted Christian brick makers in a nearby district. The Franciscan priest, sitting behind the steering wheel, knew the streets well and managed to lose the attackers.

We know they were brick kiln owners,” recalled the 59-year-old nun of the Sisters of Charity of Jesus and Mary congregation. “Fact-finding missions in brick kilns were always under the shadow of guns. The armed guards of kiln owners circle around as we collected interviews. The victims usually change the narrative by the time human rights workers reach them,” she said.

Presently, 58 nuns from her congregation serve in the fields of education, medicine and pastoral work. According to the latest Catholic directory, 29 women congregations are present in the Islamic Republic of Pakistan.

Over the coming years, Sister Genevieve’s resolution as an activist only grew stronger as she became closely associated with the Protestant’s Young Women’s Christian Association and the Catholic Church’s human rights body, the National Commission for Justice and Peace. In 2012, she became the national director of the Catholic Women’s Organization(CWO) which observes its 10th anniversary in July.

Lay Catholics have joined dozens of priests in demanding Ruteng Diocese’s embattled bishop quit for allegedly misappropriating more than US$100,000 in church funds and having an affair with a woman.

In a July 1 statement signed by 30 people, they said “resignation” was the best course of action for Flores Island’s Bishop Hubertus Leteng as he had failed to perform his duties.

“The bishop is the shepherd, the representative of Christ, the spiritual leader, the model to live the Gospel value. Since his attitude and behaviour violate the nature and identity of a bishop, we urge him to resign from office,” they said.

If Bishop Leteng refuses to resign, they said, the Holy See must dismiss him.

“I think it would be a disaster if Archbishop Apuron were to return as the bishop of record,” said Coadjutor Archbishop Michael J. Byrnes, because of the extent of the loss of trust among the faithful and the “widespread disarray” left behind in church operations.

Byrnes, a former auxiliary bishop of Detroit, spoke to the press in Agana July 6, offering an update of the canonical investi-gation and trial of Apuron and his own personal thoughts about what would be best for the archdiocese moving forward.

The guidelines are expected to be ready in the next few months and implemented in Catholic schools when the next academic year begins. “What we are doing is in response to the current situation, where radicalism is so strong, including among teenagers,” Franciscan Father Vinsensius Darmin Mbula, chairman of the National Council of Catholic Education told ucanews.com on July 10. “To stem this, we believe one solution is through education,” he said.

Father Mbula referred to a 2015 survey in 171 schools in Jakarta and Bandung, West Java that revealed 9.5 percent of students supported violence committed by radical groups, including the so-called Islamic State group. An earlier survey by the Institute for Islamic and Peace Studies revealed that almost 50 percent of students supported radical ideas. He said advice would be sought from Islamic experts and thinkers from other religions.

An activist Catholic priest known for his human rights work and campaigns for social justice has been barred from leaving the country for “national security” reasons.

“Redemptorist Father John Nguyen Ngoc Nam Phong was stopped at Noi Bai Airport and prevented from travelling to Australia on a study trip as he was checking in on June 27,” a church source said.

In a post on Facebook, officials said Father Phong, from Thai Ha Parish in Hanoi, was prevented from travelling overseas “for the protection of national security, social order and safety.”

Catholic blogger John Baptist Nguyen Huu Vinh said on Facebook that Father Phong is well known for fighting for justice, truth and helping people who fall foul of the communist government.
“He struggles for religious freedom among people in northwest provinces and gives them opportunities to escape poverty,” he said.

The Dalits have decided to organize a secret meeting to pray to Jesus, to save them. Conversions and renunciations of the Hindu faith are occurring in the Surkhet district of western Nepal. The Dalits are marginalized because of their caste belonging. And they are tired of suffering serious discrimination and threats. Sanu Nepali, 21, was beaten by some senior caste members on July 5. They accused him of bathing in public drinking water, polluting it physically and above all “spiritually.” He ended up in the hospital. Two months ago, a nine-year-old Dalit boy, Bhim Bahadur, was brutally beaten with perhaps only because he dared to enter the kitchen of a family of a higher caste of his, in the village of Barahatal, in the same district. It is estimated that about 50,000 Dalits in Surkhet District, who were victims of serious discrimination, have decided to leave the Hindu faith and embrace the message of Christianity. The decision was taken in the meeting with a large number of representatives.

Lal Babu BK, one of the participants said, “We were more than 200. We have come together to convert to Christianity to save ourselves. We have all practised Hindu faith for generations since it was mandatory, but today the country is secularized and Hindu faith can not save us. Those who torment and who humiliate us are Hindus like us. By being named untouchables we are judged from the bottom down. We can not even touch lower caste people, can not enter their homes, we can not touch public drinking water and can not have access to public places. So what is this belief? Are we certain in this faith? We concluded ‘no’ and decided to convert to Christianity.” Jayasara, mother of Bhim Bahadur BK, said: “We made this decision from the moment we had no alternatives to save us.”