By Sanu Biswakarma
Kathmandu, Sept 15, 2025: Christianity first reached the Kathmandu Valley in what is now Nepal in the 17th and 18th centuries. The first recorded Christian to enter the Kathmandu Valley was a Jesuit priest named Father Juan Cabral. He was on his way to Bengal, India, from Tibet and was received by the local king.
A more significant presence began with the arrival of Catholic Capuchin friars in the early 18th century. They established missions in the Kathmandu Valley, worked among the local population, and built churches. They were largely welcomed by the kings of the Malla dynasty.
However, this early period of Christianity in Nepal ended in 1769 when King Prithvi Narayan Shah unified the country and established a unified Hindu kingdom. Fearing that the missionaries were foreign spies, he expelled all Christians, who then took refuge in India.
For the next two centuries, Nepal was largely closed to Christian missionaries. Christianity returned to the country after the overthrow of the Rana regime and the establishment of democracy in 1951, when the country’s borders were opened to the outside world.
Re-emergence of Christians
The re-emergence of Christianity in Nepal after 1951 was not a single event but a complex process involving multiple factors and groups. The overthrow of the autocratic Rana regime in 1951 marked a significant shift. The new government, led by King Tribhuvan, opened Nepal’s borders to the outside world, a dramatic change from the country’s long period of isolation.
To modernize the country, the king appealed to foreign governments and non-governmental organizations to help with Nepal’s development. Christian missionary organizations responded to this call and were allowed to enter Nepal, but with a crucial condition: their work had to be focused on social services, not direct proselytization.
They established institutions for development, including hospitals, schools, and rural development projects. The Jesuits also returned, establishing prestigious schools like St. Xavier’s, which became an important educational institution for the Nepali elite.
A Legacy of Service, A Question of Fruit
For more than seven decades now, Catholic priests and religious have served Nepal through schools, health clinics, hostels, and social works. Their contributions are widely respected, yet the numbers reveal a striking reality: Catholics in Nepal remain only 8,000 to 10,000, while Protestant and evangelical Christian communities are estimated over one million in a population of some 31 million.
This contrast has triggered debate within Catholic circles. Are Catholic institutions too focused on education and social service, while neglecting personal evangelization? Is the Church in Nepal seen more as an institution than as a living community of faith?
Since the first Catholic missionaries arrived in the mid-20th century, the Church has prioritized education, healthcare, and charity. Renowned Catholic schools have produced some of Nepal’s brightest leaders. Caritas Nepal and religious congregations have consistently supported disaster relief and social development.
But while institutions have flourished, Catholic numbers have remained stagnant. Protestants, meanwhile, have grown rapidly, particularly among Dalits, marginalized ethnic groups, and rural poor. Their grassroots model—small groups, home fellowships, testimonies, and relational evangelism—has proven more effective in spreading faith.
Papal Teaching on Evangelization
The disparity has raised uncomfortable but necessary questions within the Catholic Church. The issue is not new; the Popes have long emphasized that institutions alone cannot replace evangelization.
Pope Paul VI, in his landmark apostolic exhortation Evangelii Nuntiandi (1975), declared: “Evangelization is in fact the grace and vocation proper to the Church, her deepest identity. She exists in order to evangelize.” (§14).
Pope Francis, in Evangelii Gaudium (2013), echoed this urgency: “The parish is not an outdated institution … This presumes that it really is in contact with the homes and the lives of its people.” (§28).
In a 2023 general audience, Pope Francis warned: “Without apostolic zeal, faith withers.”
The consistent message from Rome is clear: education, health, and charity must be accompanied by personal encounter with Christ. Without this, Catholic presence risks being seen as another NGO rather than a missionary Church.
Why Evangelicals Grow Faster
Religious experts note that evangelical growth is driven less by formal institutions and more by relational witness. Families are invited to prayer groups; neighbors share testimonies; pastors are present in daily struggles. For many marginalized Nepalis, the sense of equality, belonging, and direct encounter with God proves compelling.
By contrast, Catholicism, with its structured liturgy, centralized leadership, and emphasis on institutions, can sometimes appear distant. This does not diminish its sacramental richness, but it does highlight why Protestants have found greater numerical success.
A Call for Revival in Nepal
Catholic leaders now face a pastoral challenge: how to maintain the strength of their institutions while making evangelization central. The shift does not mean abandoning schools or hospitals, but ensuring that they also become places of faith encounter.
The question confronting priests and religious is whether their daily mission is centered on administration or on discipleship. Are they primarily managers of schools, or shepherds of souls? Are hostels only producing educated youth, or forming new believers rooted in the Gospel?
The numbers suggest that Catholic presence in Nepal is respected but limited. If evangelization is indeed the Church’s “deepest identity,” as Pope Paul VI insisted, then the path forward may require moving beyond institutions alone.
Catholic priests and religious have already given decades of sacrifice in Nepal. Their next challenge may be even greater: to bring Christ not just through schools and clinics, but directly into homes, families, and hearts.