Francis Nadeem

Father Francis Nadeem is a Franciscan Capuchin priest working in the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Lahore in Pakistan.

He was chief editor of Catholic Naqib, the Urdu language Catholic journal, in 1989.^[1]

He was the Parish Priest of St. Mary's Church, Gulberg from 2000 to 2002.^[2]

Fr. Nadeem, a parish priest from Lahore, was nominated for an Independence Day Award on August 15, 2000 for outstanding service to the country. He published books on the contribution of Christians to Pakistan.^[3]

In 2004, he led Christian and Muslim representatives as they marched together along the India-Pakistan border in Kasur, 55 kilometers south of Lahore, to affirm their desire for peace in Kashmir and to support dialogue in both countries.^[4]

He was critical of the Ethics textbook for grade nine, approved and published by the Punjab Textbook Board, which lacks a chapter on Christianity and Jesus Christ, which he called open discrimination against Christians in Pakistan.^[5] Such efforts are marginalising minorities and making them feel like strangers in their country. He claimed that the extremism prevalent during the past few decades shows that forces are working to eliminate minorities from Pakistan.^[6]

President, General Pervez Musharraf, announced 150 Pakistan Civil Awards on 14 August 2006, including Tamgha-e-Imtiaz to Father Francis Nadeem for Public Service.^[7]

Father Nadeem, who heads the National Council for Interfaith Dialogue in Lahore, criticized the present government for being "unclear" and "very silent" on extending dialogue with India. The priest said he had stopped participating in or organizing Kashmir rallies since the present government came to power in 2014.^[8]

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