Caritas Switzerland, founded in 1901 by Capuchin friar Rufin Steimer amid the Catholic political milieu of the time, is celebrating its 125th anniversary this September, making it one of the country's largest aid organisations despite the decline of the broader Catholic institutional world from which it emerged. Based in Lucerne, the organisation has navigated a history marked by contradictions — progressive yet at times conservative, Catholic in origin yet increasingly secular in outlook — including troubling episodes such as its sympathy for Franco during the Spanish Civil War and its role in a 1950 resettlement project in Brazil that housed Nazi war criminals among its colonists. Today Caritas Switzerland operates across 162 partner institutions worldwide, focusing on long-term development cooperation rather than emergency relief, and at its peak cared for one in six asylum seekers in Switzerland — a record that underscores its enduring relevance at a moment when many governments are cutting foreign aid budgets.