A Pakistani Catholic couple that risks being repatriated and a parish that has offered them refuge: that’s what has happened in Glasgow, Scotland, where the parish priest of St. Patrick’s, Anderston (Glasgow), Father Gerry Nugent, has opened the doors of the parish house to give “protection and safe haven” to the couple. “I took them in because they were frightened and isolated – declared Father Nugent -. I don’t want to enter into the political debate; I’m a simple parish priest and when people in difficulty ask me for help I can’t abandon them”. According to the report in “Flourish”, the monthly of the archdiocese of Glasgow, the couple, Masih and Christine Raymond, come from Karachi where Masih was working as a building contractor until 2004, when he was forced to abandon his work, following threats and physical violence against him by a group of Islamic contractors. A similar fate was suffered by his wife Christine, who was arrested on a charge of proselytism and forced to leave her post as a teacher. The couple arrived in Great Britain in 2005 in the hope of obtaining asylum. But a repatriation order was issued against them on 20 September. Thanks to the parish priest and the Archbishop of Glasgow Mario Conti, the repatriation has now been suspended and the couple have returned to their home in Anderston. “It’s unjust – said Archbishop Conti – to make them return to the country where they were persecuted. Many reports show that Christians suffer arrest and persecution in Pakistan”.
