First of all I congratulate Bill Purcell and Center for Social Concerns of the Notre Dame University for organizing Catholic Social Tradition Conference entitled; Peace Yesterday, Today, and Tomorrow: Celebrating 50 Years since Pacem in Terris,  encyclical of Pope John XXIII. This is  indeed very significant  international   conference. I feel immense peace and joy to participate! 

“We have 9/11 every day in Pakistan,” said Fr. James Channan, Regional Coordinator for the United Religions Initiative (URI) in Pakistan, speaking on “Interfaith in Pakistan” at the Chapel at Croton Falls on Sunday, July 10, 2011.

For the past four years, URI Korea has organized a Youth Leadership Peace Camp in partnership with the Korea Ministry of Culture and Tourism. This year the Peace Camp took place June 24-28 in Seoul. Dr. Abraham Karickam and Dr. Hira Paul Gagnegi, URI Coordinators from India, and Father James Channan, URI Coordinator from Pakistan, who are members of the URI Asia Executive Council,

The odds that a Catholic priest can help bring peace and make interfaith dialogue and religious tolerance flourish in troubled Pakistan would seem long. Some 35,000 people have been killed in the country since Sept. 11, 2001. In a population of 180 million, 96 percent are ...
 

Daily News tells us about the darkness of human behavior infesting Pakistan at this time. Literacy rate is low, violence is high, corruption and mistrust at high levels reigns, crimes and subjugation of women are tolerated, suicide bombers strike, a war on terror is being waged that kills innocent people.

On Tuesday evening I had the pleasure of introducing Father James Channan, URI’s Regional Coordinator for Pakistan, at a reception in his honor. After covering a few background facts—his degrees in Islamic Studies and Arabic Language and Counseling and his role as a founder of URI Pakistan—I tried to give the audience some context for his forthcoming address.

Join us for a conversation with Father James Channan, regional coordinator in Pakistan for San Francisco-based United Religions Initiative. A Dominican priest and pioneer of Muslim-Christian dialogue in Pakistan, Father Channan will talk about his work building bridges and promoting human rights in a dangerously divisive society.

Fr James Channan OP, Director of Peace Center, Regional Coordinator United Religions Initiative Pakistan and former Prior Vice Provincial of the Dominican Ibn-e-Mariam Vice Province had a special audience with his Holiness Pope Benedict XVI in Rome, on 13th of April, 2011 in Rome.

 Paul Bhatti, the brother of the Pakistani Minister for Minorities who was killed last month, met with Benedict XVI and asked for the Pope's continued support of Pakistani Christians. Shahbaz Bhatti was the only Christian member of the Pakistani cabinet. He was an outspoken opponent of the nation's anti-blasphemy laws, which are used to repress minorities. He was killed March 2.

URI Regional Coordinator for Pakistan Father James Channan is in Helsinki, Finland this week to participate in the Finnish Social Forum and give a lecture on Christian-Muslim dialogue at the University of Helsinki.