#102
COVID-19 Implications on Faith and Preparing for Disaster 

A provocative op-ed by John L. Allen Jr. asks if the Vatican needs a “Dicastery for Disasters,” so as to better prepare for future catastrophes. He suggests a Dicastery that would oversee “pandemic preparedness plans among dioceses around the world,” “work with Catholic charitable organizations around the world to develop a stockpile of resources,” “identify the greatest spiritual needs during a pandemic, develop a set of “best practices” to help dioceses,” and “study the experience of the Church in all those places where restrictions on pastoral life were imposed by governments, and develop a set of guidelines for how to respond to those measures.” This echoes long-standing suggestions from disaster preparedness and risk reduction scholars that religious entities represent an untapped potential.
 
Disaster preparedness has been a long-standing concern for some religious institutions and faith-inspired organizations, particularly in areas that experience frequent disasters, such as the Philippines and Sri Lanka. Preparedness work has focused on building community-level disaster plans and preparing places of worship in disaster-prone areas. Epidemics and pandemics are one aspect, but other vulnerabilities increase risks and exposure to hazards that include floods, landslides, typhoons, and earthquakes. Faith actors support congregations to map out risks in their area, for example, or organize advocacy efforts with local government to reduce their disaster risk.

Disaster preparedness and risk reduction experts are keenly aware of the links between climate change and increased impact of disasters. With links between natural degradation and pandemics now in sharp focus, intersecting concerns of climate justice advocacy, practical disaster preparedness measures, and the immediate needs to respond to COVID-19 are far clearer. COVID-19 demonstrates that disaster preparedness must be on all religious institutions’ agendas into the future. This should spur religious institutions to prepare more purposefully for disasters and spur greater activism to counter climate change. 
 
John Allen highlights that disaster risk reduction experts can learn from religious responses and the ways that disaster is experienced as part of a person and community’s spiritual life. While some ways in which religions can be part of disaster risk reduction are clear, much remains undiscussed and unseen. Looking towards future disasters (including pandemics), what have we learned in terms of spiritual care and religious coping from COVID-19 that we must not forget to prepare and to reduce risks? A research question in the making.

(Based on: June 11, 2020, Crux article.)