Book launchings of the recently-completed Urdu translation of A New Short History of the Catholic Church written by Fr. Norman Tanner SJ took place in Karachi on March 1 and in Rawalpindi on March 3.
This is the sixth language into which the book has been translated. The translation was done by Fr Gulshan Barkat OMI assisted by Columban Fr Robert McCulloch of the Missionary Society of St Columban and was completed over a period of four years. The book launch in Karachi took place at the National Catholic Institute of Theology and in Rawalpindi at the Christian Study Centre.
The focus of the Christian Study Centre is ecumenical study, research and activity so it was appropriate that the book launch there took place on March 3, the first anniversary of the celebration of Anglican Choral Evensong in St Peter’s Basilica in Rome in 2017.
The Urdu translation responds to the urgent need in Pakistan and the Gulf States where many Urdu-speaking people live for the availability of books of high-standard about the Catholic Church and its teaching and about Christianity.
Bishop Benny Travas of Multan, Dr Jennifer Jag Jivan (Director of the Christian Study Centre), Prof. Charles Amjad-Ali from Chicago, and Dr. Indrias Rehmat (Academic Dean of the National Catholic Institute of Theology) gave academic interventions during the book launchings. The printing and publication of the Urdu translation was generously funded by the English Jesuit Province to which Fr Tanner SJ belongs.
Columban Fr Robert McCulloch is the Procurator General for St Columbans Mission Society in Rome.