Rashid Masih, Suicide?

In posting this story a few days ago, I mentioned my reluctance because "such stories are often twisted, even in the Catholic press" — Martha and Arshad Masih. Well, the local Church's "version of events contradicted reports in the secular Italian media and L’Osservatore Romano, the Vatican daily, which said the man had been burnt to death by a Muslim" — Catholic’s suicide case sparks three-day protest.

It would be scandalous for a a father of four to kill himself, even if he was "in despair after his wife was allegedly tortured by police." (There was no mention of rape, much less rape in front of her children, in this updated report.) Sadly, Pakistani Catholics were given an even more scandalous precedent twelve years ago — Pakistani bishop's suicide protest.