VATICAN CITY (CNS) — Christians and other minorities affected by severe flooding in Pakistan are being discriminated against in government-run rescue and aid programs, said the director of pontifical missionary societies in Pakistan.
Father Mario Rodrigues, the Lahore-based director of the mission awareness and funding agencies, said, "While Caritas and the pontifical mission societies are working on providing humanitarian relief to displaced persons without discrimination of origin, race or religion, in other areas, the Christian refugees, even in the midst of this tragedy, are being treated as second-class citizens."
"They often receive little assistance or are excluded altogether," the priest told Fides, the news agency of the Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples.
Fides said Aug. 20 that the priest specifically identified government aid programs as those engaged in discriminatory practices.
Muslims make up about 97 percent of Pakistan's population.
The severe flooding that began in Pakistan in late July has left at least 4 million Pakistanis homeless and without food or clean drinking water.
Aid is coming "slowly and with...
