User talk:Nomi48

Bishop John Joseph was born in Khushpur, Pakistan on 15 Nov 1932. [1] He received his religious education at the Christ the King Seminary (Pakistan) in Karachi and was ordained in Faisalabad on 18 Jan 1960. After completing a doctorate he went on to serve on the faculty of the Christ the King Seminary. On 24 Oct 1980 he was appointed Auxiliary Bishop of Faisalabad and ordained Bishop on 9 Jan 1981. On 9 Jan 1984 he became Bishop of Faisalabad. He died on 6 May 1998.

Bishop John Joseph ended his own life May 6 in the courthouse in Sahiwal where Ayub Massih, a 25-year-old Catholic had been condemned to die for blasphemy against Islam. Joseph shot himself in the head in protest. Asian bishops attending a month-long synod in Rome observed a moment of silence for Joseph the following day. As word of Joseph's death spread, hundreds of Christians gathered outside the courthouse in support of the bishop, who led the Pakistani bishops' human rights commission. Ayub, who remains in jail pending appeal, has been convicted of speaking favorably of British author Salman Rushdie, author of The Satanic Verses. Rushdie has been in hiding since Muslim officials called for his death in 1989, declaring that his book blasphemed the Prophet Mohammed. Joseph, 65, said the charge against Ayub was false, trumped up to force 15 Christian families to back out of a local land dispute Joseph, the first native Punjabi bishop, had been scheduled to make a presentation May 5 at a seminal in Rome on Asian church concerns. The seminar was held in conjunction with the Synod of Bishops for Asia. In a paper sent to Rome, Joseph expressed regrets, saying he needed to stay in Pakistan to fool; after a Christian whom Muslim extremists had threatened to kill if he were acquitted on a blasphemy charge. In announcing Joseph's death, Peter Jacob, executive secretary of the Commission for Justice and Peace, said it is "extremely sad that his decision has taken away the best of the best from the human rights movement in Pakistan." and that the message that comes through very clearly is that of the despair of rights activists in the country. Joseph was taken to his home village near Faisalabad for burial. He has been head of the Faisalabad diocese, near Lahore, since 1981.