John Joseph

Who was John Joseph?

John Joseph was the Roman Catholic Bishop of Faisalabad from 1984–1998 and was best known for committing suicide to protest the cruel treatment of Christians by Pakistani Muslims.

John Joseph was born in Khushpur, Pakistan. He received his religious education at the Christ the King Seminary in Karachi and was ordained in Faisalabad on 18 January 1960. After completing a doctorate he went on to serve on the faculty of the Christ the King Seminary. On 24 October 1980 he was appointed Auxiliary Bishop of Faisalabad and ordained Bishop on 9 January 1981. On 9 January 1984 he became Bishop of Faisalabad. He committed suicide by shooting himself on 6 May 1998, in protest of the execution of a Christian man on trumped up blasphemy charges by Muslims in Pakistan.

Three new publications on Bishop John Joseph have been published since the bishop's death. "A Peaceful Struggle" is a compilation of the bishop's writings on matters related to justice and peace. The 197-page book was compiled by the Faisalabad diocesan human rights office, led by Father Khalid Rashid Asi. A translation of the English-language book into Urdu has also been published. The third book, "Sermons in Blood," is a 110-page book written by labor activist Gulzar Wafa Chaudhry. Chaudhry attempts to keep alive the revolutionary spirit that Bishop Joseph tried to initiate in protest at the situation of Christians and other religious minority communities in Pakistan.