Ann Arbor, Michigan, Nov 16, 2025 / 06:00 am (CNA).

Three Christian families in Pakistan have been liberated from bondage thanks to the ongoing efforts of an Argentine priest and young layman who recently returned to Spain from the Muslim-majority country. 

Father Rico, a priest with the Order of St. Elias based in Argentina, told CNA that he paid Muslim Pakistani businessmen the equivalent of $1,700 to liberate three Christian families from debt bondage. 

Men, women, and children have been subjected to generational hard labor making bricks to pay off debts, enduring rape, forced marriage, and forced conversion in Pakistan, especially since the 1980s, when relations between Christians and Muslims deteriorated. Christians have been attacked and murdered there following accusations that they have violated Muslim religious laws.   

“I went to Pakistan with the sole purpose of freeing Christian slaves who are suffering in bondage. I brought about $3,000 to pay for their liberation,” Father Rico said.

As with previous trips, the missionary priest traveled with a young lay Spaniard named Diego who returned to the Catholic faith in 2024. The two flew to Pakistan together last year, at which time they were able to free 200 from bondage. In 2025, they liberated 110 Christian slaves.

Christians in slavery

According to the United Nations, between 3.5 million and 5 million people in Pakistan are engaged in bonded or forced labor in which whole families are compelled to work, for example, to cancel a debt or other obligations. Many are children. 

There may be as many as 1 million slaves in the Punjab province alone. The Pakistani government has outlawed the widespread practice and has taken steps to rehabilitate people released from bondage. 

The majority of the slaves are engaged in making bricks, of which approximately 45 billion are manufactured each year in brick kilns across the Asian nation. The U.N. has noted in the past that some 20 million people are enslaved in the world, but South Asia has the highest number.

According to MinorityRights.org, there are approximately 3 million to 5 million Christians in Pakistan — almost 2% of Pakistan’s total population of 242 million. 

The debt charged against Christian slaves is invented by the businessmen engaged in brickmaking, but they retain them in bondage through threats and violence, Father Rico explained.

“Thanks to our supporters and their prayers, we were able to rescue 11 people — three families — from servitude. These people were born into slavery. They had never known freedom. They were not allowed to attend Christian services nor receive sacraments. On the very day of being released from bondage, I was able to give them the sacraments, including baptism. It was a day of dual liberation!” he recalled.

After returning from the recent mission, Father Rico received a letter from a recent convert to the faith in Pakistan named Dominic, who described being attacked and beaten by his own family members. “They even broke the crucifix you had gifted me,” he wrote. He explained that he chose to pray for them instead of fighting back, to fulfill Jesus’ command to “love your enemies.”

“I now deeply understand what it means to carry the cross of Our Lord as a Christian, and I take pride in this cross. Their beatings, insults, and the breaking of wooden crucifixes cannot stop the Church from growing … because the true cross lives in our hearts,” Dominic wrote in his letter.

The PaX community: Helping Christians in need

According to OpenDoors.org, Christians are disproportionately affected by Pakistan’s regulations against blasphemy, as defined by Islamic sharia law. The charity declared that roughly a quarter of all blasphemy accusations target Christians, which can carry a death sentence. Last year, an elderly man was killed by mob violence after being accused of desecrating the Quran, and a 2023 attack on Christians in Pakistan has caused a climate of fear, the charity reported. Churches are heavily monitored and outreach is forbidden.

To further assist Christians in need there, Father Rico has launched a project called PaX and Diego is the project manager. “PaX” means both “peace” and “Pakistan Christendom.” 

Father Rico’s order — the Order of St. Elias — is collaborating with the project.

Diego told CNA that he and another Catholic, Joseph Janssen, visited the country in June to search for an adequate parcel of land to begin building a PaX community. Janssen is an activist for minority rights in Pakistan and a member of the Neocatechumenal Way, a Catholic movement.

“The projects we started are still underway. They are diverse, always taking into account the abilities and the traumatic past of these poor people,” Diego said. The plan is to help the freed slaves earn a living in the PaX community through construction, agriculture, livestock farming, and the production of construction materials.

The first such community is planned for 300 to 400 persons, and another is in the works. Diego told CNA that multigenerational enslavement has exacted spiritual and psychological costs on the liberated Christians.

“After a life of eating garbage, being treated like garbage, and suffering constant violence, some of them don’t know what it’s like to be human. That’s why we have to get them to where they can live in peace, practice Christianity, and raise their children. There, they can teach them that there is a future and that the only thing that they must seek is God and his kingdom.” Out of concern for their safety, Diego would not reveal where the PaX communities will be located.

“Everybody has shown such impressive charity by praying, contributions, and offers to go to Pakistan,” he said. “It’s impressive to see the Catholic missionary zeal in the defense of one of the most persecuted communities in the world. The project is in phase one; we began construction of the wall this week, but we still have a long way to go with what will be the first step in the foundation of Pakistani Christianity.”

VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- Before joining hundreds of people for lunch, Pope Leo XIV celebrated Mass for the Jubilee of the Poor and prayed that all Christians would share "the love of God, which welcomes, binds up wounds, forgives, consoles and heals."

With thousands of migrants, refugees, unhoused people, the unemployed and members of the trans community present in St. Peter's Basilica or watching from St. Peter's Square, Pope Leo assured them, "In the midst of persecution, suffering, struggles and oppression in our personal lives and in society, God does not abandon us."

Rather, "he reveals himself as the one who takes our side," the pope said in his homily Nov. 16, the church's celebration of the World Day of the Poor. 

Volunteers with Vatican, diocesan and Rome-based Catholic charities joined the people they assist for the Mass. The French charity Fratello organized an international pilgrimage, bringing hundreds of people to Rome for the Mass, visits to the major basilicas of Rome and prayer services.

The Vatican said 6,000 people were at Mass in the basilica and another 20,000 people watched on screens from St. Peter's Square. By the time Pope Leo led the recitation of the Angelus prayer, some 40,000 people were in the square.

After the Angelus, as part of the celebration of the 400th anniversary of their foundation, the Vincentian Fathers sponsored and served lunch for the pope and his guests. Members of the Daughters of Charity and volunteers from Vincentian organizations helped serve the meal and handed out 1,500 backpacks filled with food and hygiene products.

The luncheon featured a first course of vegetable lasagna, followed by chicken cutlets and vegetables and ending with baba, a small Neapolitan cake soaked in syrup. Rolls, fruit, water and soft drinks also were on offer. 

Before the Mass, Father Tomaž Mavrič, superior general of the Vincentians, symbolically gave Pope Leo house keys from the Vincentians' "13 Houses Campaign." The name of the project, which has constructed homes for the poor around the world, is an homage to St. Vincent de Paul and his decision in 1643 to use an endowment from French King Louis XIII to build 13 small houses near the Vincentian headquarters in Paris to care for abandoned children.

In his homily at the Mass, Pope Leo noted how the Bible is "woven with this golden thread that recounts the story of God, who is always on the side of the little ones, orphans, strangers and widows."

In Jesus' life, death and resurrection, "God's closeness reaches the summit of love," he said. "For this reason, the presence and word of Christ become gladness and jubilee for the poorest, since he came to proclaim the good news to the poor and to preach the year of the Lord's favor."

While the pope thanked Catholics who assist the poor, he said he wanted the poor themselves to hear "the irrevocable words of the Lord Jesus himself: 'Dilexi te,' I have loved you." 

"Yes, before our smallness and poverty, God looks at us like no one else and loves us with eternal love," the pope said, "And his church, even today, perhaps especially in our time, still wounded by old and new forms of poverty, hopes to be 'mother of the poor, a place of welcome and justice,'" he said, quoting his exhortation on love for the poor.

While there are many forms of poverty -- material, moral and spiritual -- the thing that cuts across all of them and particularly impacts young people is loneliness, he said. 

"It challenges us to look at poverty in an integral way, because while it is certainly necessary at times to respond to urgent needs, we also must develop a culture of attention, precisely in order to break down the walls of loneliness," the pope said. "Let us, then, be attentive to others, to each person, wherever we are, wherever we live."

Poverty is a challenge not only for those who believe in God, he said, calling on "heads of state and the leaders of nations to listen to the cry of the poorest."

"There can be no peace without justice," Pope Leo said, "and the poor remind us of this in many ways: through migration as well as through their cries, which are often stifled by the myth of well-being and progress that does not take everyone into account, and indeed forgets many individuals, leaving them to their fate."
 

On the Ninth World Day of the Poor, Pope Leo XIV shares lunch with around 1,300 people from around the world, and recalls the many people who suffer due to violence, war, and hunger.

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In his Angelus address during the Jubilee of the Poor, Pope Leo XIV reflects on the persecution Christians will face at the end times and our call to “bear witness to the truth that saves the world; to the justice that redeems peoples from oppression.”

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Pope Leo XIV celebrates Mass to mark the Jubilee of the Poor, and urges leaders of nations to listen to the cry of the poorest, saying they remind us that there can be no peace without justice.

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On the ninth World Day of the Poor, the European Laudato Si’ Alliance calls on the EU to address the global debt crisis affecting the most vulnerable. Through its “Turn Debt into Hope” campaign, the alliance urges fair, transparent solutions to reduce poverty and promote justice.

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ACI Prensa Staff, Nov 15, 2025 / 13:45 pm (CNA).

Pope Leo XIV told representatives of the global film industry on Saturday that cinema is far more than entertainment, calling it a vehicle capable of expressing humanity’s deepest spiritual search and its longing for the infinite.

The pope received a group of filmmakers, actors, and producers at the Apostolic Palace on Nov. 15. Among those greeting him were Academy Award-winning Australian actress Cate Blanchett, American actor Chris Pine, Italian actresses Monica Bellucci and Maria Grazia Cucinotta, and Oscar-winning director Spike Lee.

Ahead of the audience, the Vatican released a list of some of the pope’s favorite films, including “The Sound of Music” and “Life Is Beautiful.”

Addressing the artists, the pope said cinema is “still a young, dreamlike, and somewhat restless art form” and that although it began as a “play of light and shadow, designed to amuse and impress,” it soon began to convey “much deeper realities,” eventually becoming “an expression of the desire to contemplate and understand life, to recount its greatness and fragility, and to portray the longing for infinity.”

He told them: “It is wonderful to see that when the magic light of cinema illuminates the darkness, it simultaneously ignites the eyes of the soul. Indeed, cinema combines what appears to be mere entertainment with the narrative of the human person’s spiritual adventure.”

One of cinema’s most valuable contributions, he said, is “helping audiences consider their own lives, look at the complexity of their experiences with new eyes, and examine the world as if for the first time,” thus rediscovering “a portion of the hope that is essential for humanity to live to the fullest.”

He added: “I find comfort in the thought that cinema is not just moving pictures; it sets hope in motion!”

The cinema as the heart of community life

“Entering a cinema is like crossing a threshold,” the pope said. “In the darkness and silence, vision becomes sharper, the heart opens up, and the mind becomes receptive to things not yet imagined.” Through their work, filmmakers “connect with people who are looking for entertainment as well as those who carry within their hearts a sense of restlessness and are looking for meaning, justice, and beauty.”

“We live in an age where digital screens are always on,” he continued. “There is a constant flow of information. However, cinema is much more than just a screen; it is an intersection of desires, memories, and questions. It is a sensory journey in which light pierces the darkness and words meet silence. As the plot unfolds, our mind is educated, our imagination broadens, and even pain can find new meaning.”

He stressed that cultural institutions such as cinemas and theaters are “the beating hearts of our communities because they contribute to making them more human,” adding: “If a city is alive, it is thanks in part to its cultural spaces. We must inhabit these spaces and build relationships within them, day after day.”

Nonetheless, he warned that “cinemas are experiencing a troubling decline, with many being removed from cities and neighborhoods,” and noted that “more than a few people are saying that the art of cinema and the cinematic experience are in danger.” He urged institutions “not to give up but to cooperate in affirming the social and cultural value of this activity.”

Resisting the ‘algorithmic logic’ of the digital age

“The logic of algorithms tends to repeat what ‘works,’ but art opens up what is possible,” he said. “Not everything has to be immediate or predictable. Defend slowness when it serves a purpose, silence when it speaks and difference when evocative. Beauty is not just a means of escape; it is above all an invocation.”

“When cinema is authentic, it does not merely console, but challenges,” he continued. “It articulates the questions that dwell within us and sometimes even provokes tears that we did not know we needed to express.”

In the jubilee year, he told them, the Church invites everyone “to journey towards hope,” saying their presence was “a shining example” of that. He described filmmakers as “pilgrims of the imagination, seekers of meaning, narrators of hope, and heralds of humanity,” whose journey is measured not in distance but in “images, words, emotions, shared memories, and collective desires.”

The Church, he said, “esteems you for your work with light and time, with faces and landscapes, with words and silence.” Quoting Pope Paul VI’s words to artists — “If you are friends of genuine art, you are our friends… this world in which we live needs beauty in order not to sink into despair” — he said he wished “to renew this friendship because cinema is a workshop of hope, a place where people can once again find themselves and their purpose.”

He encouraged them to remember the words of film pioneer David W. Griffith: “What the modern movie lacks is beauty, the beauty of the moving wind in the trees,” linking it to the Gospel image of the wind as a sign of the Spirit. “I invite you to make cinema an art of the Spirit,” he said.

“In the present era, there is a need for witnesses of hope, beauty, and truth,” he continued. “You can fulfill this role through your artistic work. Good cinema and those who create and star in it have the power to recover the authenticity of imagery in order to safeguard and promote human dignity. Do not be afraid to confront the world’s wounds.”

Good cinema, he stressed, “does not exploit pain; it recognizes and explores it.” Giving voice to the complex and sometimes dark feelings of the human heart “is an act of love,” he said, and authentic art “must engage with” human frailty.

Filmmaking, he reminded them, “is a communal effort, a collective endeavor in which no one is self-sufficient,” involving the contributions of countless professionals. “Every voice, every gesture, and every skill contributes to a work that can only exist as a whole.”

“In an age of exaggerated and confrontational personalities,” he said, they show that film requires “dedication and talent,” and that everyone’s gifts can “shine in a collaborative and fraternal atmosphere.” He prayed that cinema would “always be a meeting place and a home for those seeking meaning and a language of peace” and that it would “never lose its capacity to amaze and even continue to offer us a glimpse, however small, of the mystery of God.”

“May the Lord bless you, your work and your loved ones,” he concluded. “And may he always accompany you on your creative journey and help you to be artisans of hope.”

This story was first published by ACI Prensa, CNA’s Spanish-language news partner. It has been translated and adapted by CNA.

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