Social initiatives sponsored by the Catholic Church in Bangladesh, focused on mitigating the impact of poverty or assisting street children, are facing new challenges because of the rise of Islamist extremism. Conditions for non-Muslims in Bangladesh deteriorated sharply after former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina fled to India in the wake of a mass student uprising in 2024. After the fall of her authoritarian rule and the collapse of the Awami League government she headed, a hardline Islamist power emerged in Bangladesh to take control.
Previous governments had shown tolerance of the Christian presence in Bangladesh, according to Christian Solidarity International, allowing Christians to run institutions, schools and social missions without interference. C.S.I. reports that Christians and Hindus had been protected by the secular Awami League, which restrained Islamist forces.
But with the Awami League driven from power, Christian missionary efforts are being aggressively scrutinized. Christian nongovernmental actors are struggling for official approval to put their resources to work in building or expanding schools and institutions of higher learning.
The persecution watchdog Open Doors reports that Christians with legal grievances or who have been victims of crime cannot expect justice in Bangladeshi courts, where many Christians now face concocted charges of blasphemy and where assailants can count on impunity.
There have been a number of religiously motivated attacks on churches and Christian villages, and those responsible for them have not been held accountable. Visas have been denied and visa extensions delayed for foreign missionaries. Christian minorities, especially among Indigenous people in Bangladesh, are being evicted from their traditional lands. Administrators and teachers at Catholic schools and colleges have been accused of blasphemy and proselytizing.
For almost 22 years, the Italian religious brother Lucio Beninati, a member of the Pontifical Institute for Foreign Missions, has been living in the slums of Dhaka, providing informal education, sponsoring sporting events and delivering health services for children abandoned to the streets and others growing up in slum housing.
Now the 70-year-old Brother Beninati conducts those efforts from his community house. The unpredictable political landscape prevents him from living in the slum communities themselves.
“I want to continue working for these children for the rest of my life, just as I have worked fearlessly for them for the past 22 years,” Brother Beninati told America. Despite the new scrutiny from Islamists, he and his volunteers still visit public sites in Dhaka where street children congregate each morning and evening.
He has been assaulted at times by Islamists while conducting this outreach, and he said he has been detained and interrogated by police three times in recent years while working with the abandoned and impoverished children, accused by police of proselytizing and child trafficking.
“The police have interrogated me in various ways…but were forced to release me without being able to prove any of the charges,” he said.
This Italian missionary believes that his work will be deemed successful only when not a single child is left on the streets of Dhaka and when no child is subjected to torture or murder. Street children in Dhaka, with no parents or family to protect them, are often victims of sexual assault and random violence.
Brother Beninati said he has grown old and is ready for God to take him as God wants. He has yet to find another missionary to take up his mission, but he believes his work will endure after his passing. He has recruited hundreds of volunteers who are inspired by his work, most of whom are Muslims. He is hopeful that these volunteers will carry his work forward.
While discrimination and persecution against Christians has grown sharper, it has been a longstanding problem. Bangladesh has a population of about 180 million, and about 90 percent are Sunni Muslims, 8 percent are Hindus and less than 1 percent are Christians.
The country’s Christians and other religious minorities are often persecuted by the majority Sunni Muslims. Religious minorities are particularly targeted by land grabs and accusations of insulting Islam, and they are subject to everyday acts of discrimination and public hostility. Lay Catholics have been killed and many others threatened and beaten, especially during Bible studies.
In 2001, a bomb attack on a Catholic church in Gopalganj, Barisal Diocese, killed 10 Catholics and injured many more. To this day the killers have not been brought to justice.
In 2016, Catholics were killed in arson attacks by the police and members of the then-ruling political party in an effort to force Christian Indigenous people from their land. No one has been held accountable. That same year, Sunil Gomes, a Catholic grocer, was hacked to death after Sunday Mass.
Christians worry now about a return of that level of violence. At least three churches and educational institutions in Dhaka were targeted last November by extremists who threw hand grenades against their doors. The attacks appear intended to terrorize Christians and prevent them from attending religious observances.
Last December, a letter written in Bengali under the name Tawhidee Muslim Janata (“faithful Muslim people”) was sent to two of Bangladesh’s most prestigious colleges: Notre Dame College, run by the Holy Cross fathers, and Holy Cross College, run by the Holy Cross sisters.
The letter thanked the Catholic Church for its role in promoting education but charged that the church actors are trying to convert Indigenous groups and Muslims to Christianity. This is a dangerous allegation in Bangladesh, where evangelization can lead to charges of blasphemy and imprisonment.
“In a country [which is 90 percent Muslim], you are trying to convert people by using educational institutions as a tool,” the group alleged in its letter.
More than half of the 400,000 Catholics in Bangladesh come from the country’s Indigenous communities. There are still many Indigenous people who practice their own folk religion, but the church’s educational and social services are open to everyone. Muslim extremists have come to suspect that the generosity of church-based efforts is a subtle means of evangelization and conversion.
Despite the renewed tensions, Colombian Father Belisario Ciro de Jesus Montoya, 41, remains committed to his work in rural northern Bangladesh. He provides religious education, visits Christian homes and supports Christians who have been subjected to persecution.
According to Father Montoya, the primary challenges to Christian mission work in Bangladesh stem from the nation’s unique cultural and political context. While the Bangladesh Constitution guarantees freedom of religion—including the right to profess, practice and propagate one’s faith—social pressures and family opposition can make open ministry difficult and dangerous.
If someone appears interested in converting to Christianity, family and community members often seek to intervene, and when a priest visits a non-Christian village, he is often not allowed to enter.
For former Muslims who choose to follow Christ, pressure from family and community to revert is intense. They face family rejection, social isolation, loss of inheritance or livelihood, and in some cases threats or harassment from community members or radical Islamist elements.
“Foreign missionaries like myself face scrutiny as well—visa restrictions, suspicions of ulterior motives (especially when linked to aid or development work), and limits on public evangelism,” Father Montoya told America via WhatsApp.
But he said that over the years, he has built genuine relationships rooted in love and service with the non-Christians in his community, even members of Islamist parties, and managed to avoid hostility from the Muslim community by living discreetly and respectfully.
“My approach to spreading God’s word is centered on living out the Gospel more than aggressive proclamation,” Father Montoya said. “Jesus met people in their needs—with healing, dignity and truth—so we seek to do the same.”
Another Xaverian missionary, Giovanni Gargona, is the parish priest of St. Guido Maria Conforti Church in the garment industrial area of the Diocese of Mymensingh, about 60 miles from the capital of Dhaka. Christians here live within a larger Muslim milieu. Their children face barriers to instruction and have few opportunities to learn basic Catholic values and beliefs.
“My challenge is to provide pastoral care to those who come to work in this area from different parts of Bangladesh,” Father Gargona said.
His many well-wishers from his Christian community urge him, as a foreign missionary, not to take risks, but Father Gargona said he is not afraid to work outside the safety of his rectory and go out to visit Christian villages despite the growing threat.
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