Nepal: after the deadly floods, the Pope's emergency aid entrusted to the local Caritas

On 26 August, a sudden flood devastated northern Nepal, on the Tibetan border, along one of the great routes linking Kathmandu to Tibet. By the morning of 29 August, at least 626 dead and more than 2,400 missing were recorded for Nepal alone; counting the Tibetan side, the toll reached 633 dead and nearly 3,000 missing. The count remains provisional and grows heavier by the hour: according to the tallies, there is talk of “more than 630 dead” and about 2,500 missing, among them more than 500 foreigners, including three Italians. Many were pilgrims and travellers returning from Mount Kailash and Lake Manasarovar.

The Church has never severed the faith she professes from the mercy she owes to bodies. To feed the hungry, to clothe the naked, to harbour the stranger, to bury the dead: these are corporal works of mercy that Catholic doctrine holds to be a duty of charity, and not a stirring of sentiment. The alms given to the poor is received by Jesus Christ as done to Himself; and the care of the dead, which Tobias practised at the peril of his own life, remains a holy work that the Church honours. It is by this law, and not by the emotion of the moment, that a work of relief is measured.

Leo XIV has sent a first emergency financial aid. Arranged by the Dicastery for the Service of Charity, in agreement with the Apostolic Nunciature, it is entrusted to the management of Caritas Nepal and destined for the most pressing needs of the victims. Earlier, a telegram signed by the Cardinal Secretary of State had expressed, in the Pope's name, his sorrow and his prayer for the victims and the rescuers.

“This is a first aid that the Holy Father, as on other occasions, wished to send for the primary emergencies of the population,” said the prefect of the Dicastery for the Service of Charity; “a swift and concrete sign to convey, above all to the most vulnerable, the closeness and tenderness of the Holy Father, like a caress of the Church that accompanies and sustains them.”

The Catholic Church in Nepal is small: about 10,000 faithful and thirteen parishes. Its apostolic administrator said he was “deeply grateful to the Holy Father for having prayed for us and for having given his support to the aid for the victims of the flood.” The director of the local Caritas said it again in her own way: “When natural calamities strike and destroy homes and security, human solidarity becomes our greatest strength.”

On the ground, relief struggles to reach the worst-hit area, near Rasuwa; some villages are accessible only by helicopter, and the authorities fear fresh floods from a lake formed upstream by the debris. “Besides the mud that blocks access, many bridges and roads, even heavily used ones, have been swept away by the fury of the water, the mud and the debris,” reported the regional coordinator for Asia of Italian Caritas. Coordinated with Caritas Nepal, it plans to feed 2,000 families for ten days through community kitchens, and to provide 1,000 families with hygiene, utensils, clothing and temporary shelter.

Sources. The Catechism of the Council of Trent (1566), on almsgiving and the works of mercy toward one's neighbour; the Book of Tobias (Tob. I-II), on the duty of burying the dead; the Gospel according to St Matthew (Matt. XXV, 35-40), according to the Vulgate.