Argentine priest Father Rico frees 11 Pakistani Christians from brick-kiln slavery and launches PaX communities to protect persecuted believers.
Newsroom (17/11/2025 Gaudium Press ) An Argentine missionary priest and a young Spanish layman have liberated three Christian families — 11 people in total — from generational debt bondage in Pakistan’s brick kiln industry, continuing a rescue operation that has already freed more than 300 persecuted believers since 2024.
Father Javier Rico, a member of the Order of St. Elias based in Argentina, personally paid Muslim kiln owners the equivalent of $1,700 to secure the families’ release during a recent mission trip. “I went to Pakistan with the sole purpose of freeing Christian slaves who are suffering in bondage,” Father Rico told CNA. “Thanks to our supporters and their prayers, we were able to rescue 11 people — three families — from servitude. These people were born into slavery. They had never known freedom.”
The priest was accompanied by Diego, a 28-year-old Spaniard who returned to the Catholic faith in 2024 and now serves as project manager for PaX (“Peace” and “Pakistan Christendom”), an initiative launched by Father Rico to provide permanent safe havens for liberated Christians.
In previous missions the duo freed 200 bonded laborers in 2024 and another 110 in 2025. On the day of their latest release, Father Rico administered sacraments — including baptisms — to the newly freed families, many of whom had been forbidden from practicing Christianity while enslaved.
Pakistan’s brick-kiln slavery affects millions, according to United Nations estimates, with between 3.5 and 5 million people trapped in bonded labor nationwide and possibly one million in Punjab province alone. Entire families, including children, work 16–18 hour days molding and firing roughly 45 billion bricks annually to pay off debts that are often fictitious or endlessly inflated through interest and threats.
Christians, who number between 3 and 5 million in the country of 242 million (less than 2% of the population), are disproportionately ensnared. False blasphemy accusations — punishable by death under Pakistan’s sharia-influenced laws — are frequently weaponized against them. Open Doors reports that about 25% of all blasphemy cases target Christians, and mob violence remains a constant threat. In 2023 a Christian neighborhood in Jaranwala was attacked by thousands after unproven Quran-desecration claims.
“After a life of eating garbage, being treated like garbage, and suffering constant violence, some of them don’t know what it’s like to be human,” Diego explained. “That’s why we have to get them to where they can live in peace, practice Christianity, and raise their children.”
The PaX project, supported by the Order of St. Elias and private donors, is acquiring land in undisclosed locations for self-sustaining Christian villages. Residents will earn livelihoods through agriculture, livestock, construction, and small-scale manufacturing instead of exploitative kilns. The first community, designed for 300–400 people, began perimeter wall construction this week. A second site is already in planning.
Joseph Janssen, a Dutch-Pakistani Catholic activist and member of the Neocatechumenal Way, joined Diego in June to scout properties. “The projects we started are still underway,” Diego said. “They are diverse, always taking into account the abilities and the traumatic past of these poor people.”
Even after liberation, danger persists. Father Rico recently received a letter from Dominic, a Pakistani convert he baptized, describing how his own family beat him and destroyed a crucifix the priest had given him. “I now deeply understand what it means to carry the cross of Our Lord as a Christian, and I take pride in this cross,” Dominic wrote. “Their beatings, insults, and the breaking of wooden crucifixes cannot stop the Church from growing… because the true cross lives in our hearts.”
Father Rico called the rescues “a day of dual liberation” — from physical chains and, through the sacraments, from spiritual bondage. “It’s impressive to see the Catholic missionary zeal in the defense of one of the most persecuted communities in the world,” Diego added. “The project is in phase one, but we still have a long way to go with what will be the first step in the foundation of Pakistani Christianity.”
- Raju Hasmukh with files from CNA
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