Priest and layman liberate Christian slaves from bondage in Pakistan

Ann Arbor, Michigan, Nov 16, 2025 / 06:00 am

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.”