In spite of the realities of globe-shrinking travel and universal communication, our imaginations still enshroud places on the other side of the world with antipodal remoteness. Understandably, Christians in America, mindful of our Lord’s Great Commission, might wonder how the Good News could reach such faraway quarters. They will be inspired by what’s happening in Kathmandu.
In this regard, the trustees of NCCF are thrilled to report that a donor advised fund has been established to bolster the works of the Church in Nepal, our first outreach to that distant land. There are two stories here, one about Caritas-Nepal, the other about its remarkable Director.
As its website indicates (www.caritasnepal.org), Caritas Nepal “is the social development arm of the Roman Catholic Church, it works in solidarity with marginalized communities in Nepal to empower them to overcome poverty, to realize basic human rights and social justice, and to provide relief to those suffering from disasters and conflict. The main program areas of Caritas Nepal currently are: Improving Food Security of Rural Households through Sustainable Agriculture; Building Sustainable Peace; Socio-Economic Empowerment; Poverty Alleviation through Cooperatives and Micro Enterprise; Combatting Trafficking of Women; Education for Bhutanese Refugee Children….and Emergency Relief for Disaster Victims”.
Caritas Nepal was founded in 1990 by a three-member team. Since then, it has expanded its staff and services and today operates in 50 of the 75 districts in that country. Soley devoted to the care of the poor and the marginalized, it serves people irrespective of caste, creed, ethnicity or nationality. As a member of Caritas Internationalis, it collaborates with the Caritas organizations in numerous other countries around the world.
In June 2023 Sister Durga Cecilia Shrestha became the Executive Director of Caritas Nepal, the first woman in South Asia to become the head of a national unit of Caritas. The story of her path to that position itself is inspiring.
Born into a traditionally devout Hindu family in 1983, Durga Shrestha became aware of the caste differences among Hindus and of the concomitant unjust treatment in the name of religion of the so-called ‘untouchable’ Dalits. In her early teens she had occasion to witness the solicitude with which the few Catholic nuns and priests she saw had for the Dalits and she was drawn to their kindness. Her family was alarmed at her interest in Christianity, even to the point of her father threatening estrangement. The conversion of his brother led to her father’s own conversion and in 1996 the entire family became Christian. It was not an easy change. The Shresthas were one of three families in a Hindu-majority village of 200 households. Even Durga’s grandfather treated her family as ‘untouchables’.
Durga was admitted to a school run by the Sisters of St. Joseph of Cluny who had started their mission in East Nepal in the early 1980s. As she approached graduation, she found herself having to choose between marriage and becoming a nun. She decided that successfully passing her final exams would be a sign from God that she should choose the latter.
At the age of 19 she joined the Sisters of St. Joseph of Cluny and in 2016 took her final vows and began her work for marginalized women and children. This commitment led to her becoming a board member of Opportunity Village Nepal, an organization run by the Good Shepherd nuns of which she eventually became Director. Except for the patriarchal leanings of the Nepalese society, becoming Executive Director of Caritas Nepal was a logical next step. The Apostolic Vicar of Nepal regards her appointment as a “genuine desire in the Church to see women in leadership position’.
NCCF is grateful to the donor who has established this fund. We share in the advance of the Kingdom even in the realm of the world’s highest mountains.
