Pakistan church community demands justice
St. Cecilia’s church wall vandalised in Loretto, marking another incident in a troubling pattern of intimidation.
On the morning of August 18, at around 4:00 AM, the Christian community of Loretto, Pakistan, witnessed the wall of St. Cecilia Church vandalised with an Islamic inscription. The wall marks the entrance to the village and stands next to the founding stone engraved with the words “Welcome to Loretto.” Loretto is a small village in Layyah district, Parish Chak 270/TDA, with an established Catholic community. The wall of St. Cecilia Church was spray-painted to pay homage to the Holy Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him). The word “Christian” in Urdu – written as “Essai” – was also painted on the wall and deliberately crossed out.
Father Farhan Irshad, parish priest of St. Cecilia, said the painting occurred between 3:00 and 4:00 AM. “Our church represents the entry of the village. It has always stood as the singular entity of our identity, and they tried to paint over that symbol of our identity,” he explained.
A troubling pattern
A similar incident was reported in Karachi on August 16, when the wall of Holy Trinity Church was vandalised with Quranic verses. The date is remarkably similar to the anniversary of the Jaranwala attacks, which followed false blasphemy accusations. Verified reports show a clear uptick in attacks on Christian sites since 2023. After the large-scale Jaranwala mob attacks of August 16, 2023, conservative counts find at least two verified incidents between January and August 2024 (the Gujar Khan church fire and Dipalpur founding-stone vandalism) and at least four in the same period of 2025 (attempted arson in Phoolnagar, cemetery desecration in Okara and graffiti attacks at Holy Trinity Karachi and St. Cecilia Loretto) – a twofold rise each year.
Atta Ur Rehman Saman, deputy director of the Catholic Commission for Justice and Peace, expressed grave concern. “The recent incidents of vandalism and threats against the Christian community in Pakistan are a blatant and alarming attack on our very existence. Coinciding with the somber anniversary of the devastating Jaranwala incident, when nine Christian settlements were reduced to ashes following false blasphemy accusations, this act sends a chilling message to the Christian community. Regrettably, the police response has been woefully inadequate, with the incident being trivialized as mere ‘wall-chalking.’ This egregious downplaying dilutes the severity of the offense and leaves the Christian community vulnerable and marginalised.”
‘We feel helpless’
Father Farhan said that the incident left some community members angry while others were gripped by fear and anxiety. “It is normal to feel anxiety after seeing such inscriptions outside a church. The youth were very active, and the village leaders handled it well. The community gathered in the parish and the Station House Officer was called; although he arrived late, he admitted that what happened was wrong. The church authority asked the police to clean the inscriptions themselves, because honestly, as a minority we fear even touching such markings. The police tried to remove it using coal and later the area was painted over in black, because it had been spray-painted.”
Shamaun Qaiser, former member of the Punjab Assembly and current chairman of the local Union Council, described such incidents as intentionally programmed to inculcate fear and to remind us of our existence. “It is not new; we have witnessed it many times. What may seem unintentional or trivial are, in fact, planned attacks carefully timed to intimidate the community. In 2024, around the second anniversary of the Jaranwala tragedy when Nazir Masih was murdered, even the founding stone of St. Paul’s Church in Dipalpur was vandalised. This reflects a systematic pattern to instill fear. The most painful part is that as minorities we feel helpless, we cannot act or even speak, because any response risks being perceived as blasphemy. In one case, an offensive inscription remained on the wall of a convent for years because nobody had the courage to remove it. That is the depth of fear we live with.”
Additional precautions
Father Farhan also raised concerns about the effectiveness of police investigations and the punishment of culprits. “The police registered the First Information Report themselves, but they listed it as wall-chalking; from our perspective, it is a hate crime intended to terrorise. The crossed-out ‘Essai’ clearly shows how a certain community is being targeted. The police promised security, but now we are taking additional precautions; the youth of the village also serve as security guards every night. In our village, two members of the same family were forcefully converted, and that makes this incident appear even more threatening.”
Reverend Shehzad Gill, senior chaplain to the Moderator Bishop of the Church of Pakistan, said, “The ability of our system to ignore such events is astonishing; this very silence turns them into a perpetual cycle. The perpetrators must be identified and punished, otherwise we will never set an example or show people that this is a crime. The wall of a church is not just any wall, it is the wall of a sanctuary, and such places must be protected.”
