Crux

As rescue workers continue efforts to reach victims of a devastating natural disaster along the Nepal-China border in the Himalayas earlier this week, Catholics in Nepal are contributing to the emergency response even as leaders and faithful face danger and uncertainty. The death toll climbed to 676 on Saturday, while nearly 3,000 people remained missing more than three full days after a Himalayan glacier split and collapsed, triggering flash floods along a river that cuts through several towns on both sides of the border. “We are not able to ascertain the situation among Catholics,” Fr. Silas Bogati told Crux Now, “because the communication system has broken down in the area close to the border.” As apostolic administrator for Nepal, Bogati is the senior churchman in the nation of 31 million, only 10 thousand of whom are Catholic. The first native-born Nepali citizen to be ordained a Catholic priest (in the year 2000), Bogati led Caritas Nepal for more than a decade and is intimately familiar with the challenges of disaster relief in the Himalayan country. “The roads are also inaccessible,” Bogati told Crux Now on Saturday. “We are trying to contact some of the people we know, and we know for sure that some Catholics have died,” he said, but could not yet provide many details. “Many people in the Catholic communities may have been affected indirectly or directly by the recent floods,” he said, adding that determining precise numbers of those affected and identifying victims – dead, missing, displaced – is “very difficult at this moment.” Bogati said he fears Catholics belonging to the Tamang community in Tipling, a village in the east-central part of Nepal near the country’s northern border with Tibet, may have been among the worst affected. “There are settlements of Tamang Catholics,” in Tipling, he said. “They often travel to different places looking for work, particularly seasonal labor. Many of them had come to this tourist area because there are employment opportunities there.” “We do not know exactly how many were present when the disaster occurred,” Bogati said, “[but] it is quite natural for them to go there to earn their livelihood.” The Tamang are a large ethnic people comprising roughly 6 percent of the total population in Nepal. “They are Nepali Catholics,” Bogati said. “They often migrate for a few months with their families and then return home,” he said. “[W]e have not yet been able to establish communication with them or determine how many Catholic families were there,” the priest also said. “We are very worried,” he told Crux Now. Bogati was able to offer Crux Now an alarming general picture of the situation. “The Tamang Catholic community is also facing the wider consequences of the disaster,” he said. “Damaged roads and bridges, disrupted communications and shortages of essential supplies have made it more difficult for families to reach markets, health care and other basic services,” he said. “The needs of vulnerable families in Tipling and neighboring communities will require continued assessment and support as recovery efforts move forward,” the apostolic administrator also told Crux Now. There was some good news Bogati was able to report on Saturday morning. He had established communication with Fr. James Britto, a priest of the vicariate who had been left stranded when the flash flooding started. “Fr. James who was stranded has established communication,” Bogati reported on Saturday, “and we are grateful to God, that Fr James is safe.” “[He] had gone to celebrate Mass to the other side of the river,” Bogati told Crux Now on Wednesday, but the priest could not return to his mission station “as roads and bridges have been washed away.” “Rescue operations are continuing,” Bogati also said Saturday, “and more than 1,400 people have been rescued,” some of them Indian and other foreign nationals. The affected area is a popular hiking spot and a travel route for Hindu pilgrims. “For us as a Church,” Bogati said, “being close to suffering people is very important. The Catholic Church in Nepal is doing what it can on the ground.” “For the Catholic community in Nepal, the immediate priority is to remain close to those suffering while continuing efforts to determine the fate of families who remain unaccounted for,” he said.

Crux’s Newsletters

Nepal’s senior Church leader describes harrowing situation in wake of disaster

Premium article: Nepal’s senior Church leader describes harrowing situation in wake of disaster

A Jewish scholar chosen to lead the Catholic Biblical Association is hit by backlash

More than 600 dead, 3,000 missing after disaster in Himalayas, as Church responds

Jerusalem court acquits a man indicted in nun attack, orders psychiatric care

More than 600 dead, 3,000 missing after disaster in Himalayas, as Church responds

Caritas assessing after flash floods kill more than 100 in Nepal and China

Filipino cardinals address deadly shooting incident at Jesuit high school

Indigenous youth protest in Dhaka after Christian village looted

Record-high number of assisted suicides in California

Vatican’s ‘Foreign Minister’ tells Moscow to end the war in Ukraine

Caritas assessing after flash floods kill more than 100 in Nepal and China

A year after Minneapolis Catholic school shooting, documents detail swift response, little on motive

Crux. Anytime. Anywhere.

Premium article: Nepal’s senior Church leader describes harrowing situation in wake of disaster

A Jewish scholar chosen to lead the Catholic Biblical Association is hit by backlash

More than 600 dead, 3,000 missing after disaster in Himalayas, as Church responds

Jerusalem court acquits a man indicted in nun attack, orders psychiatric care

Record-high number of assisted suicides in California

Vatican’s ‘Foreign Minister’ tells Moscow to end the war in Ukraine

Caritas assessing after flash floods kill more than 100 in Nepal and China

A year after Minneapolis Catholic school shooting, documents detail swift response, little on motive

More than 600 dead, 3,000 missing after disaster in Himalayas, as Church responds

Caritas assessing after flash floods kill more than 100 in Nepal and China

Filipino cardinals address deadly shooting incident at Jesuit high school

Indigenous youth protest in Dhaka after Christian village looted