St. Joseph’s Church, Lahore
Encyclopedia
St. Joseph’s Church, Sarfaraz Rafiqui Road, is the oldest church of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Lahore
in Pakistan. It was blessed on October 31, 1853. St. Joseph's was originally built to serve Catholics in the British Army.
The parish priests were Fathers Nasir Gulfam & Frans Labeeuw (OFM Cap) in 2003. The parish of 5,000 families consists of approximately 25,000 Christians.
The parish also has a Church in Batapur which was rebuilt through the help of a local benefactor.
The Parish Franciscan Youth
Group established a book bank to help deserving students. Graduating students give their old books and some are bought by the Parish, helping nearly 300 students. The members also visit the sick in hospitals and in their homes.
A Christian and Muslim Peace Committee helps to keep the peace and harmony among the communities. Special days, festivals and other holidays are celebrated together. The committee arranges medical camps, social programmes and awareness programmes. This group also helps to find jobs for unemployed Christians.
On October 31, 2003, Prime Minister Mir Zafarullah Khan Jamali told an estimated 6,000 Catholics at St. Joseph's Church that he was grateful to be invited to the 150th anniversary of the church. Parish priest Capuchin Father Nasir Gulfam and Catholic National Assembly member Akram Masih Gill invited the prime minister to the jubilee celebration.
Archbishop Lawrence Saldanha
used the occasion to make a call for the government to create an independent Minorities Commission with judicial powers. Currently there is no forum for minority grievances to be addressed.
Schools in St Joseph’s parish currently educate 3,500 in an effort to reduce the estimated 30-40 percent of parish children who receive no schooling at all.
Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Lahore
The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Lahore is an archdiocese in Punjab, Pakistan.-History:It was founded as a diocese on 1 September 1886, having previously been the Vicariate of Punjab. On 23 April 1994 the diocese was elevated to the rank of Archdiocese. Fr...
in Pakistan. It was blessed on October 31, 1853. St. Joseph's was originally built to serve Catholics in the British Army.
The parish priests were Fathers Nasir Gulfam & Frans Labeeuw (OFM Cap) in 2003. The parish of 5,000 families consists of approximately 25,000 Christians.
The parish also has a Church in Batapur which was rebuilt through the help of a local benefactor.
The Parish Franciscan Youth
Franciscan youth
Franciscan youth is a Catholic Church movement of young people, from 14 to 30 years old, who wants to follow Jesus by example of St. Francis of Assisi...
Group established a book bank to help deserving students. Graduating students give their old books and some are bought by the Parish, helping nearly 300 students. The members also visit the sick in hospitals and in their homes.
A Christian and Muslim Peace Committee helps to keep the peace and harmony among the communities. Special days, festivals and other holidays are celebrated together. The committee arranges medical camps, social programmes and awareness programmes. This group also helps to find jobs for unemployed Christians.
On October 31, 2003, Prime Minister Mir Zafarullah Khan Jamali told an estimated 6,000 Catholics at St. Joseph's Church that he was grateful to be invited to the 150th anniversary of the church. Parish priest Capuchin Father Nasir Gulfam and Catholic National Assembly member Akram Masih Gill invited the prime minister to the jubilee celebration.
Archbishop Lawrence Saldanha
Lawrence Saldanha
Lawrence John Saldanha was born in Mangalore, India on 25 October 1936. He received his religious training at the Christ the King seminary in Karachi and was ordained a priest in Lahore, Pakistan on 16 January 1960....
used the occasion to make a call for the government to create an independent Minorities Commission with judicial powers. Currently there is no forum for minority grievances to be addressed.
Schools in St Joseph’s parish currently educate 3,500 in an effort to reduce the estimated 30-40 percent of parish children who receive no schooling at all.