Ironically the meeting—assembled to assess earthquake damage—is held in the shadow of the wreckage of St. Xavier’s School in Bhuj, which was reduced to concrete debris on the morning of January 26. The school is far from unique; not a single structure in the once-bustling town of Bhuj has been left untouched.

A devastating earthquake that measured 7.9 on the Richter scale left a trail of destruction not only in Bachau but all over Gujarat state in western India. The killer tremor did its worst damage in the Kutch district of Gujarat, along the border that separates India from Pakistan.

While the Gujarat government has consistently underestimated the death toll—finally putting the figure at 35,000 —social workers and federal government officials say the quake has claimed more than 100,000 lives. Almost every major township in Kutch—including Bhuj, Anjar, Bachau, and Ropa—was virtually flattened by the earthquake. The 900 small villages located in the Kutch region, which spans 17,000 square miles, were also reduced to rubble.

Rapid response
The response by the Catholic Church was prompt. Even theology students in New Delhi, over 900 miles from Kutch, were given the option of leaving their classrooms and rushing to help the 1 million hapless people who had been left homeless in the wake of this, the worst earthquake India has faced in decades.

Local Catholics could not hope to run the relief operation by themselves. “We have only about 10,000 Catholics here. We could not do much of our own. So we have appealed to everyone to join in the relief work,” said Bishop Gregory Karotemprel of the Rajkot diocese, in which the most heavily devastated section of Kutch is located. The response, Church leaders report, was “overwhelming.” Nuns from as far as Calcutta (1,200 miles to the east) and medical workers from Kerala (1,800 miles to the south) rushed to help at three relief camps that were set up by the Rajkot diocese and Caritas Inda at Bachau, Bhuj, and Gandhidham.

After spending the night in tents, braving temperatures that dipped toward freezing, and eating a quick, spartan breakfast, the 700 Catholic volunteers fanned out in groups to visit isolated villages up to 40 miles from their camps. In some cases these workers would be the first outsiders to reach the villages after the earthquake. They traveled in jeeps and vans packed with food, medicine, tents, bedding, and other emergency supplies.

As the sun set, these relief workers found their way back to the camps. There the atmosphere was quiet, and the background was dark. The entire Kutch region was without electricity, running water, and telephone service for a fortnight after the quake. But fatigue gradually gave way to the loud singing of hymns, as Archbishop Lorenzo Baldisseri, the papal nuncio in India, presided at a concelebrated Mass at the Bhuj relief headquarters. Behind the altar were not the usual church icons and crosses, but stacked bags of wheat, to be delivered to the desolate villagers in the following days.

After Mass and dinner, the volunteers huddled—some sitting on the few available folding chairs, while most squatted on dusty plastic sheets spread across the ground—to hear group leaders set the priorities for the relief effort. There was unanimous agreement on the top priority: supplying tents to the homeless. “People are shivering in the cold without any protection. We need blankets and tent material urgently,” said Sister Seema of the Missionaries of Charity.

As leaders of the different traveling groups summarized their experiences, one after another, a listener gained a clear picture of the service rendered by the Catholic workers to the quake victims, especially in the remote villages. While supplying essential food and medicine, the church relief workers also were trying to touch the broken hearts of the devastated people. As they spent hours listening patiently while bereaved families spoke of their lost loved ones, emotional bonds were developed. By the time they left the villagers, many relief workers were being asked, “Will you come again tomorrow?”

At the other end of the relief pipeline, there was an overwhelming response to an appeal for help from Caritas India. Pope John Paul II himself sent a gift of $100,000. From the worldwide network of Catholic relief agencies, by the end of the first week in February, Caritas had already received pledges amounting to $2.4 million.

The tragedy has also prompted many local parishes to recruit men and collect material for the relief work. Several truckloads of rice, sugar, lentils, clothes, and other relief material were quickly collected from Catholic schools and institutions in Delhi alone. Catholic Relief Services (CRS), the overseas relief agency of the US Catholic bishops, sent over 1,000 tons of foodstuffs to the relief camps in Gujarat.

“We are not worried about funds,” said Father John Noronha, assistant executive director of Caritas India, from his temporary base near Bhuj. Caritas India assumed responsibility for relief work in 120 villages, with 45,000 families and over 200,000 people. The list of villages that Caritas India would adopt, Father Noronha said, would be settled after discussion with other charities and relief groups, to ensure proper coordination of the overall effort.

Hostility remains
The scope of the Caritas India effort might also be affected by another factor: the hostility toward Christians that is widespread in Gujarat—a state where Hindu zealots have staged several attacks on Church workers and parochial schools in recent months. (See sidebar.) Christians account for less than one-half of 1 percent of the 45 million people in Gujarat, and some fundamentalist Hindu groups have bitterly complained that Church relief workers are seeking conversions among the poor people of the region.

“Why have you come here?” came the blunt question from stick-wielding Hindu activists who met a group of Catholic relief workers outside a remote village in Kutch. Although the village had been devastated, the nun who was leading the mission reported: “They told us ‘We do not need you here,’ and so we had to go on to another village.”

Catholic relief leaders brushed aside the efforts by some Hindu fundamentalist groups to organize a boycott of Vatican-sponsored relief agencies. “No matter what they say, we will carry on our relief work,” said Archbishop Oswald Gracias, the secretary general of the Indian bishops’ conference. “We are committed to helping those in difficulty.”

Some Hindu groups, on the other hand, were being charged with exploiting the crisis to promote their own ideology. And the situation was complicated by the close ties between the Gujarat government and the Hindu groups. Asian Age, India’s leading English-language daily, reported that several Kutch villages had decided “not to accept ‘government relief’ in protest against the control over relief operations by fascist elements.” The Asian Age report indicated people arriving at the government-sponsored relief camps were being told: “Say Jai Sri Ram [hail to the god Ram] if you want food.”

Ashok Singhal, the president of Vishnu Hindu Parishad (the World Council of Hindus), had called for a boycott of projects subsidized by the Pope’s donation to the relief effort. The Hindu leader charged that the funds would be used for purposes of proselytism rather than relief. Father Noronha of Caritas India dismissed that charge. “Basically we have concern for the people who are suffering,” he said. “The Indian Church is poor. That is why we have appealed for international aid.” To illustrate the absurdity of the charges against the Church, Father Noronha pointed out that the Indian government had accepted aid from Pakistan, the country’s historic adversary. So there was no rationale for a boycott of donations from abroad, he concluded. “Even Caritas of Bangladesh —a country much poorer than India—has made a donation of $1,000,” the Caritas official noted.

Church institutions hit
Prior to the earthquake, Catholic agencies had a significant presence in the Gujarat region, including schools and health-care facilities. Those institutions suffered along with their neighbors. Sister Josmy, the superior of the Holy Family nuns who managed a dormitory for handicapped children at St. Xavier’s School, reported that “two of our boys died” in the earthquake. “But others were lucky,” she added. About 40 students who lived in the dormitory were outside when the building collapsed.

St. Xavier’s was the largest school in Bachau. But as she tried to make sense of the situation after the disaster, Sister Josmy admitted: “We have no idea as to what to do next.” She explained: “We do not know how many people have survived, or how many of our students are alive.” According to survivors, as many as two-thirds of the people living in Bachau were unceremoniously cremated after the quake—as relief workers struggled to control the spread of infectious disease—or were buried under the rubble.

At the prestigious Mount Carmel School in Gandhidham, 90 miles south of Bhuj, administrators reported that they were fortunate to come through the earthquake without any casualties among the 2,200 students who were on the grounds. “But the joy of the children was short-lived,” recounted Sister Fabiola, the school’s principal. She explains that several parents rushed to the school —some of them “soaked in blood”—looking for their children. And “many of our children who returned home were shocked” to find that their homes had been destroyed, sometimes burying their families. Hundreds of Mount Carmel students lost at least one family member; altogether nearly 5,000 people in Gandhidham, a relatively prosperous town, perished.

“Two of our children have no one left to care for them,” said Sister Fabiola. “We have no idea as to how and when we could re-start the school. Even our convent is not livable.” As relief workers continue their efforts to reach the isolated victims of the quake, Church leaders are beginning to ask themselves similar questions. Once the immediate needs of the survivors have been met, how will they begin the enormous rebuilding process?