hand over the church to him he would take us to court.  During the following weeks tension grew as our numbers decreased for Sunday Mass.  But the church always seemed to be full of people whenever I came to visit.  In fact I was spending more and more time in T.M.K. trying to settle bitter disputes between men who once had been friends.
Before the trouble started the parish had been running a kindergarten and primary school for two days a week.  One of the Sisters from the Matli convent and a lay missionary woman taught the children on the roof of the church in half day shifts.  In the evenings we held adult literacy classes run by volunteers from the neighbouring parish.  But this crisis as it had become, had deprived us of any pupils.  
I began to understand what was happening.  The people in T.M.K. were all sweepers and untouchables, outcasts of society.  Being Christian gave them some little respect among the Muslims.  But the idea of becoming socially independent and acceptable, to have equality, was a dream beyond the reach of most of them.  The promises Dr. Sadiq made them, had the ring of possibility about it.  Or he was just a very gifted speaker who ignored the truth and the facts of life to get what he wanted.
I continued to visit the people, and to celebrate Mass with smaller and smaller congregations.  Word that several of the die-hards of the community had been taken to court for strange offences began to reach us.  George and I would go and stand witness for them and charges would be dropped for a fee.  We soon discovered that it was Mushtaq who was filing the charges against those who would not follow Dr. Sadiq.  
I was getting tired of all the trouble and tension that surrounded this affair, so I decided the time for action and confrontation had come.  The next evening I went to see Mushtaq.  He would not even let me into his house.  He shouted torrents of abuse at me over the wall of his yard, most of it in language that I could only imagine the meaning of. The neighbours, curious about all the commotion, were crowding into the alleyway  Embarrassed by the scene, aware of the scandal for everyone, the tension around me was rising.  I was fired up and angry.  I was about to curse him back.
I took a deep breath, trying to compose a suitable curse for the occasion.  It was then that I suddenly remembered what a fellow priest had said one night as we shared our problems.  He said never curse anyone who is evil or just bad, since the evil will increase and the curse come back.  Rather bless them with a blessing that calls on God to open their hearts to conversion and the truth.  So that is what I did, I changed my mind in that dark, dirty and crowded ally-way.  In a loud voice I called on the Holy Trinity to

bless Mushtaq and his family as the whole neighbourhood listened on.  Something happened, Mushtaq shouted a last unrepeatable phrase at me and slammed his door shut. Everything went quiet and the crowd dispersed.  
The next day I was called out of my bed early with the news that Master George had been arrested.  So gathering some of my staff, I set out for T.M.K. and the jail.  George had been charged with running an illegal abortion clinic and a brothel in the church.
By the time I reached the court, Master George had already been released.  The judge was convinced that there was no truth to the charges and had threatened the accusers with punishment for wasting the court's time..
Later that night I was visited by Mushtaq.  He was very upset and asked for forgiveness for his crimes.  After a long talk he convinced me he had changed and was repentant.   I told him that while I could forgive him, he was still going to have to face the community and to live with them.  I challenged him to ask forgiveness from the whole church during the Sunday Mass the next day.  He agreed to what I had suggested.
The next day before I started Mass in T.M.K. I hid Mushtaq in the sacristy.  I had told no one what I was doing but the congregation was the largest I had seen for months.  When I came to preach the sermon, I summarised the situation that had been going on in the town and asked them what they would do if their enemies would repent and ask for reconciliation.  Would they forgive or seek revenge?  The gospel of the day was of the Prodigal Son.  After a long silence, Master George spoke up.  He said that he could forgive if I would.  One by one the other men in the congregation agreed with him.  This was the moment to spring my surprise.  I called for Mushtaq to come out.  There was a sharp intake of breath as the men and women of the congregation tensed with anger and surprise.  It took some moments for them to calm down.  I then asked Mushtaq to speak.  He did, with great humility.  He explained why he had turned against the community, and why he had repented.  He said he had repented as a result of me blessing him that night in the dark alleyway.  He also said that Dr. Sadiq had run away when the case against Master George was thrown out of court.  He then realised that he was in the wrong and asked to be allowed to come back to them as a brother.
The people talked among themselves for some time and I was beginning to get worried that it would all go wrong.  Master George was eventually asked to speak for them since he had been the one most injured by Mushtaq.  He spoke long and eloquently about the pain and injury he had suffered and of the damage done to the church.  He then puffed out his chest, and filled with pride.  He went on saying that through the trials of the past months, he had become stronger in his witness to the truth.  By forgiveness of this man, he said the church would also be seen as living out its teachings.  Then he and the people said they would forgive Mushtaq if I would.
I explained that on my part I had already forgiven him.  But I said that he still wanted to make a fitting penance to make up for what he had done.  I ask him to suggest what he thought would be good for him to do?  He said that he had heard me talk about how in the old times people would go on a pilgrimage for their sins, and that he would like to do the same.
This was discussed for a while and the people and I agreed on sending Mushtaq on a pilgrimage to the National Shrine of Our Lady in the Punjab.  This was a journey of about 1,000 miles.  He was to visit all the main churches in between and get a