KAOHSIUNG, Taiwan (UCAN) — The Church in Taiwan has rushed relief aid to typhoon victims in the south of the territory, including an indigenous Catholic village which had been badly hit by a similar storm four years ago.

An indigenous Paiwan villager views the havoc caused by Typhoon Morakot, which damaged a bridge and leveled his village — UCAN photo

The Taiwan Catholic Mission Foundation and Caritas Taiwan are distributing relief aid and collecting donations from local Catholics to aid victims.

Bishop Peter Liu Chen-chung of Kaohsiung has also set up a relief command center in Pingtung county, where at least four townships were affected. “We never know what God’s plan is and why Taiwan has to suffer miserably. We can only pray for Christ’s mercy,” he said in his appeal for aid on Aug. 11.

“This is the moment for the Church to show the spirit of the Gospel,” he said, not only by assisting victims, but also “showing we are the instrument of God by bringing them the love of Christ.”

Typhoon Morakot, the most powerful storm to hit Taiwan in the past 50 years, slammed into its eastern and southern regions on Aug. 8. The government’s Central Emergency Operation Center (CEOC) said on Aug. 12 the storm had killed at least 67 people and injured 45. Sixty one people were reportedly still missing.

These figures could rise dramatically since media reports say that over 100 people from Hsiaolin village in Kaohsiung county alone are still unaccounted for and are feared buried under a mudslide which engulfed their homes.

In Taitung country, eastern Taiwan, Auxiliary Bishop John Baptist Tseng King-zi of Hualien, a Puyuma tribal, and some other Catholics visited villagers at the Chialan mission station to console them and pray with them in a show of support.

The villagers in Chialan comprise Paiwan indigenous people, two-thirds of whom are Catholics.

They evacuated to a school and a community center on higher ground when the storm approached. Fortunately, there was no loss of life, said Father John Hung, who serves the mission station here.

However, half the houses were washed away in flashfloods, according to local sources. Many bridges and roads in the surrounding areas were also washed away or damaged. The situation in the nearby parishes of Chinlun and Tawu are unclear as communication links have been cut, the sources said.

Catholics, including Auxiliary Bishop John Baptist Tseng King-zi of Hualien (extreme right), praying for traumatized villagers in Chialan on Aug. 10. — UCAN photo

According to Taiwan’s bishops’ conference, 189 people in Chialan lost their homes in the flooding, including seven workers from Our Lady Hospital. Local sources say that 53 people are still missing.

Father Hung said Typhoon Morakot has left the Paiwan indigenous Catholics in Chialan heavily traumatized. “They are still recovering from the destruction wreaked by Typhoon Haitan in 2005,” he said.

Now that their homes have been destroyed again, he continued, some Catholics are resorting to praying to traditional deities.

“I can feel their pain when they cry out,” he shared. “I dare not offer empty words as it does not help them. I can only listen to them and stand by them.”

The church in Chialan, built 50 years ago, was destroyed by Typhoon Haitan. Reconstruction plans have not yet been finalized because a decision on the new church’s location has not yet been made, Father Hung said.

“Perhaps it is fortunate that we have not begun to construct the church since the whole place is now flooded,” he said.