Thammasat University students are aware that Pope Francis, head of the Catholic Church and sovereign of the Vatican City State, will be visiting Thailand from November 20 to 23, 2019.

While Catholics are a small minority in Thailand, this visit may be an occasion for learning by the majority who are not Catholics. The last time that a Pope visited the Kingdom was in 1984, when Pope John Paul II made the trip.

However, students familiar with Thai history may know that in October 1963, His Majesty The Late King Rama IX and HM Queen Sirikit visited Vatican City and met Pope St. John XXIII, a previous leader of the Catholic Church.

Students in the Faculties of Architecture, History, Religion, Philosophy, and many other fields may know that the Thammasat University Library owns many books about Catholic history and culture.

It would be difficult to study many Western subjects without taking into account several Catholic contributions to different fields of activity.

In the Kingdom, the architecture of the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception in Chanthaburi, has been praised, along with St. Joseph’s Church in Ayutthaya, Santa Cruz Church of Thailand in Bangkok, St. Anna Nong Saeng Church in Nakhon Phanom, Cathedral Sacred Heart College in Chiang Mai, The Nativity of Our Lady Cathedral in Bang Nok Khwaek, St. Michael’s Cathedral in Sakon Nakhon, and the Mother of Perpetual Help Cathedral in Udon Thani, among others.

Yet perhaps the most impressive legacy of Catholic work in the Kingdom is in the many Catholic charities that are still active today, which accept volunteers.

Formerly known as the Catholic Commission for Human Development, Caritas Thailand was founded to carry out the Church’s human development work. Caritas Thailand is responsible for the social action of the Thai Catholic Church under the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of Thailand (CBCT).

The word caritas means charity in the Latin language. As the Caritas Thailand website states:

Caritas Thailand’s mission is to love and serve the poor by promoting the dignity of the human person, strengthening the family institution and local community, recognising and supporting the common vocation to ministry towards the family of humankind, and living according to universal and cultural values that protect human life and the environment.

Some of its major activities include:

• Empowerment of communities, especially vulnerable groups, through training in community-based disaster management, disaster risk reduction, improvement of livelihood, community leadership, recruitment of volunteers, etc.
• Response to emergencies
• Care of people who are physically and mentally challenged
• Care of ethnic minority groups, migrants, prisoners and refugees
• Promotion of care for the environment, e.g. sustainable agriculture
• Raising awareness of issues relating to anti-human trafficking and promotion of a child-safe society
• Promotion of human rights
• Health initiatives including care for people living with HIV/AIDS, mobile medical clinics, training, etc.

Another charitable association, Catholic Relief Services (CRS) has been working in Thailand since the mid-1950s. In 2001, CRS opened an office in Bangkok to oversee programs in Cambodia, Indonesia, Vietnam, the Philippines, and East Timor.

Its website explains:

CRS’ work in Thailand focuses on the HIV and AIDS crisis. More than 443,000 Thai people are living with HIV and AIDS, especially the rural poor in the south and northeast areas of the country where fear of stigma and discrimination discourages residents from seeking help.

We support the Thai Bishops Catholic Committee on HIV/AIDS, a network body in Thailand helping Catholic agencies more effectively strengthen their staff skill and knowledge on prevention, care, support and counseling, as well as other vocational technical skills for people living with HIV.

Finally out of Thailand, we also work with the networking body called Catholic Asia-Pacific Coalition on HIV/AIDS (CAPCHA), which provides learning and information exchange among Catholic organizations and staff working on HIV/AIDS in the region.

In addition to its HIV and AIDS work, CRS also manages a microfinance program in the northeastern part of the country, which provides low-interest loans to help people launch or expand businesses...

Another example of a Catholic charity in the Kingdom is the Good Shepherd Sisters Bangkok.

As its website notes, their mission is directed towards those who are most deprived and rejected in society, especially women and girls:

• LOVE & RECONCILIATION: To the women and children who are victimised and abused in their own families, we are called to help them rebuild their lives …
• PROVIDE SHELTER: To those children who lack adult care at home, we create a homely place that is congenial to the continuing formation of the children in their educational needs, physical needs and spiritual formation.To the migrant and asylum seekers who face loneliness being in a foreign land and those who are abused by their employers, we bring forth friendship, spiritual nourishment and compassion. We provide shelter – a home away from home for those who are abused.

Still another association is The Human Development Fund (HDF) Mercy Centre, a non-profit religious-based foundation that has been serving the poor people of Klong Toei since 1972. It works to help the children and communities of the many slums of Bangkok.

Among its other efforts, its community services have worked with the mandate to empower the men and women living in Bangkok’s slum communities by giving them knowledge about their rights, providing access to everything that is, by right, their own, and by transferring our experience to them so that their communities will continue to improve in future generations.

(HDF) Mercy Centre has many wide-ranging activities:

In the past three decades, responding to over 80 major slum fires, we have worked through the night and following days with the victims, primarily squatters, to rebuild homes and prevent eviction. In most cases, we provide the materials, social workers, and community organizers while the victims, their families, and neighbors provide the labor. We also respond daily – often hourly – to individuals and families in crisis.

The HDF oversees the following community services:

• Housing – Construction and repair.
• Community Organization – Consultation, leadership, education, and coordination with welfare organizations and government ministries, the national housing authority, metropolitan police authorities, and the Port Authority of Thailand.
• Drug Rehabilitation – Program placement.
• Documentation – Obtaining proper birth and identity certificates required for government schools, health benefits, and hospitalization.
• Sports – Construction and maintenance of drug-free playgrounds.
• Financing – Small business start-ups and emergency low interest loans.
• Klong Toey Women’s Group and Savings & Loan – Empowering poor women to control their finances and strengthen their neighborhoods. Currently we have over 700 members.

(All images courtesy of Wikimedia Commons)