Catholic garment workers in Bangladesh stage Good Friday Passion play near Dhaka

DHAKA, Bangladesh — In an industrial district 20 miles from Bangladesh’s capital, Catholic migrant workers who cannot travel home for Easter are keeping the faith alive — staging a living Way of the Cross on Good Friday at a church center established for their spiritual care.

About 200 Catholics gathered April 3 at the Jesus Worker Center in the Zirani area of Gazipur to watch fellow parishioners dramatize the 14 stations, from the condemnation of Jesus to his burial and resurrection.

The participants — young men, women, and elderly Catholics who work in nearby factories — performed the reenactment at the center, which serves roughly 1,700 Catholics scattered across the surrounding industrial zone.

Binodh Bless Mardy, 28, is one of them. An Indigenous Catholic, Mardy has worked at E.O.S. Textile Mills Limited for about eight years. He tries to join the Christian community in his free time and took part in the Good Friday reenactment as a narrator.

“Since I don’t get much time off during Easter and my home is far away, I try to attend all the Easter Sunday events here instead of going to my village,” Mardy told EWTN News.

Mardy’s home village is about 250 miles away, in Dinajpur Diocese in northern Bangladesh.

He said he is not always able to attend Mass during Holy Week before Easter. “When I get time off, I don’t always get to Mass. And when I try to get time off, I can’t always manage it. So I pray at home,” he said.

A center for Catholic workers

The Jesus Worker Center was established in 2009 by the Archdiocese of Dhaka for the spiritual care of Catholics working in the area’s garment factories and other private industries. About 1,700 Catholics live in different neighborhoods under the center’s pastoral reach.

Father Biswajit Bormon, assistant parish priest at the center, said he and three other priests provide spiritual care to Catholic workers across a 20-square-kilometer (about 7.7-square-mile) area.

“Laborers come here from different parts of Bangladesh and work in different companies. Most of them do not get Sunday off, so we give them more time on Fridays,” Bormon said.

During Lent, the priests visit at least seven subcenter locations to offer Mass and hear confessions. They celebrate as many of the Holy Week liturgies as possible across the area.

“Where seven or eight families can gather in a place, the priests go and celebrate the Mass and take care of them spiritually. And those who are around the center come to the center. The Way of the Living Cross is staged by those around the center,” Bormon said.

‘The joy of celebrating with family’

Milon Kormokar has worked in the Zirani area for about 15 years and currently works for Rahimafrooz, a Bangladeshi industrial company. He lives in a rented house with his wife and two children.

Kormokar does not go home for Easter. His home parish is the cathedral parish of the Diocese of Rajshahi, about 190 miles from Zirani — a six- to seven-hour bus journey.

His company gives one day of personal leave, but that is not enough to travel home, so he celebrates Easter at the center instead.

“There are many of us Christians here; we celebrate Easter Sunday with them, but the joy of celebrating with our families is not available with others,” Kormokar said.

“Priests work very hard to take care of us spiritually. They often go door to door to check on the families, pray, and hear confessions,” Kormokar told EWTN News.

Beyond spiritual care

The center’s mission extends beyond sacraments. The priests also assist Catholics who are sick and help arrange accommodation for new arrivals in the area. A day care center at the Jesus Worker Center allows Catholic parents to leave their children in care while they work.

Bangladesh’s roughly 600,000 Christians make up less than 1% of the country’s approximately 178 million people. The Catholic community, with about 400,000 members, is the single-largest Christian group and includes a large proportion from the country’s Indigenous communities.

Both Mardy and Kormokar said they believe the Church should advocate the government to declare at least two days of public holiday around Easter so that Christians who work far from home can travel to spend the feast with their families.

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