UCA News has confirmed that the Vatican’s Congregation for the Causes of Saints approved the inquiry on Bashir on Oct. 24. Still, the Lahore Archdiocese did not publicly announce the development until Nov. 7.
The Catholics: Lahore Focus, the archdiocesan monthly publication, made the news public on Facebook on Nov. 7.
The archdiocese has not organized any public event to inform the people about the development in the nation’s largest Catholic jurisdiction, home to almost half of the country’s estimated 1.3 million Catholics.
“Congratulations to the faithful: a milestone in Akash Bashir's path to beatification,” it stated.
“This important milestone celebrates the courage and faith of this young layman who gave his life to protect others in 2015,” the post added.
The development comes after the archdiocese officially concluded the diocesan inquiry into the martyrdom of Bashir on March 15.
This came nine years after Bashir, then 20, was killed while preventing a suicide bomber from entering a packed church on March 15, 2015.
The diocesan inquiry, the first process after a candidate has been accepted for canonization, examines whether the candidate lived a life of sanctity and heroically practiced Christian virtues.
Akash Bashir's 71-year-old father, Bashir Emmanuel, said he didn't know about the latest development until Nov. 7.
“I knew the work was in process. We love the photo of our son used in the notification. I wish to see him venerated as a saint in my lifetime,” he told UCA News.
Some Catholics who declined to be named said they were surprised that such a piece of great news was not made public and widely circulated.
Some alleged that the crisis in the archdiocese triggered by Archbishop Sebastian Shaw's recent suspension for irregularities prompted Church officials to keep a low profile.
Salesian priest Noble Lal, rector at Don Bosco Technical and Youth Center, Bashir’s alma mater in in Youhanabad, a Christian neighborhood in Lahore city, refused to react to the archdiocese’s inaction, saying the acceptance was just part of the whole process.
“It’s only a part of it, not the whole process yet,” he told UCA News.
Archbishop Benny Mario Travas, apostolic administrator and vicar general of the Lahore archdiocese, declined to comment when UCA News contacted him.
Catholic priest Akram Javed, parish priest of St. John's Catholic Church, where the blast killed Bashir with others, expressed his hope for a successful sainthood process.
He said the archdiocese has been silent because all the bishops, including the apostolic administrator, were busy with their annual conference until Nov. 6.
“God will make things better,” Javed told UCA News.
Catholic priest Francis Gulzar, the former parish priest of Youhanabad, credited Bashir for saving his life with bravery and sacrifice.
"I was amid the Mass when the explosion shattered our front gates. Akash confronted and stopped the suicide bomber at the entrance," he recalled.
Gulzar claimed that despite the approval on Oct. 24, the Vatican’s message reached the archdiocese only a fortnight later.
“It is an incredible announcement, a good news that brings a new spirit in the Church of Pakistan. Especially it is a message for the youth to work for their faith. We thank God for the sacrifice of Akash,” he said.
Akash Bashir heroically stopped a suicide bomber from entering St. John's Catholic Church in Lahore's Youhanabad area on the day. The bomber — from a Taliban splinter group — detonated the explosive, killing himself, Akash, and at least 15 others, with over 70 people injured.
Simultaneously, a nearby Protestant church was also attacked.
In 2016, marking the first anniversary of the tragic incident, the Lahore Archdiocese began Akash Bashir’s canonization efforts on the first anniversary of his death in 2016.
In 2022, now-suspended Archbishop Sebastian Shaw announced that the Vatican had officially recognized Bashir as a “Servant of God,” a significant step toward sainthood, making him the first sainthood candidate from Pakistan.
The acknowledgment formally opened the diocesan process, advancing Bashir’s cause for canonization.