Dhaka (AsiaNews) – The Church is growing in Bangladesh and is gradually becoming self-sufficient. Parishes created by missionaries are being handed over to local dioceses; vocations are being fostered and cooperation with other Christian denominations is taking place. Urban areas with their economic development and huge inflow of rural migrants are becoming an urgent challenge on the frontier of evangelisation.
This is the overall picture of the Church in one of the most populated Muslim countries in the world, one that Fr Franco Cagnasso, a missionary with the Pontifical Institute for Foreign Missions (PIME), described in an interview with AsiaNews.
In Bangladesh more than 80 per cent of the population of 140 million is Muslim; Catholics are around 300,000.
Father Cagnasso, who has lived in Dhaka for years, talks about a lively Church and with strong missionary impulses.
What is the Church’s situation in Bangladesh?
The Church in Bangladesh continues to grow, especially in the Chittagong area, among the tribal population, but in other areas we also see a growing interest in Christianity. It is still very small, but it has its own interesting internal vitality. After 20 years as PIME we handed the parish of St Christina over to the archdiocese of Dhaka. The number of institutions run by the Church is increasing and new parishes have opened in the last few years. There are numerous vocations and we are thinking about women education which we have neglected in the past.
In which areas of society does the Church bear witness?
Our greatest commitment is to education and health care. Silently the Church is trying to help other minorities as well. For instance, we provide legal aid to Tribals of every religion who lost their property to expropriation by the authorities or to the Bengalese.
What guidelines does PIME follow in its mission in Bangladesh?
PIME is turning its attention to the cities as a frontier for evangelisation. The Pontifical Institute of Foreign Missions is present among other places in the northern sectors of Dhaka, a highly industrialised area where there are many rural migrants. Many of them are Christians, both Bengalese and Tribals, to whom missionaries try to give some spiritual guidance and more. Migrants live mostly in EPZs or Export Processing Zones. In Dhaka we bought some land where we built some shelters. It is a great challenge for the Church because these Christians are lost in the city if there is no one to guide them.
Sometimes there are cases of “indirect” evangelisation. Migrants congregate along tribal (Santal, Orao or others), not religious lines. We only approach Catholics, but when their neighbours see that they have some supportive focal point, they follow. It is fair to say that in urban areas there has never been actual evangelisation, but emigration at times is the only hope for those who want to convert from Islam. Many converts and mixed couples flee their villages for the cities to escape the clutches of their families’ closely-knitted system of control and oppression. In the cities they can profess their faith more freely. Urbanisation unsettles Muslims as well and from this point of view it is also fair to say that Muslim religious leaders have “pastoral goals” like ours.
What kind of relations do you have with other Christian denominations?
They are good. We are especially involved with the Lutherans and the Anglicans. There are ecumenical initiatives even though we have not been able to organise anything together that touches people’s daily lives. We are nevertheless engaged in some concrete actions in favour of the disabled.
