A 30-year-old community of 1,400 Catholics could well be one of Hong Kong’s larger parishes, but it represents the entire Catholic Church in the North Asian nation of Mongolia. But it is to the young apostolic prefecture of Ulaanbaatar, the capital of Mongolia, that Pope Francis will travel to on his 43rd international apostolic journey from August 31 to September 4.
Mongolia is 53 per cent Tantric Buddhist, 39 per cent atheist, three per cent Muslim, three per cent Shaman and two per cent Christian. The first Catholic missionaries didn’t arrive there until 1992, and today the small Catholic population is served by around 77 missionaries from 10 congregations, of which three are male communities and seven are women’s orders.
Giorgio Cardinal Marengo, the apostolic prefect of Ulaanbaatar, and missionaries working in the region consider the visit “an opportunity to tell the people of Mongolia about the Catholic Church and the pope.” Many Mongolians have never heard about Catholicism. According to one missionary working in the country, “It will be a beneficial learning experience for the Mongolian government and its political leaders, as many are unfamiliar with the Catholic Church.”
It is evident from the pope’s appointment of cardinals in the last nine consistories that he wishes to strengthen the Church in areas that are less well known, many of which have never had a cardinal appointed before. Bishop Marengo was elected a cardinal at 48 last year and appointed a member of the Dicastery for Evangelisation. He helped prepare the way for a small delegation from the Mongolian government to meet with the pope and present him with an official invitation to visit Mongolia.
Throughout his decade-long papacy, Pope Francis’ choice of destinations for apostolic visits reveals an abiding interest in people overlooked by wealthy nations. Few people had heard of Lampedusa before he visited it in July 2013, just a few months after his inauguration. In 2023, however, it has become synonymous with his papacy—his concern for refugees and migrants, the displaced, and those at the margins of society. Disaster-affected areas, natural calamities, civil wars, and extremist areas have also been the destinations of papal visits. It goes on and on, from Sri Lanka to Bangladesh to Manila to Iran to Mexico, from the Democratic Republic of Congo to South Sudan.
Mongolia shares borders with China and Russia, two countries of great interest to the Vatican. Pope Francis has been working on peace efforts between Russia and Ukraine since the war began. He has repeatedly offered to mediate peace talks. The Holy See remains keenly interested in China, having signed a provisional agreement on episcopal appointments in 2018. According to Mongolian missionaries, the papal visit is an opportunity also for the Chinese faithful to meet the Holy Father, since going to Italy is more difficult than going to Mongolia. India is another notable Asian nation that has yet to host Pope Francis.
Jesus preached that nobody is to be overlooked or left behind in God’s Kingdom. Everyone is important. The travels of Pope Francis exemplify that Catholic message beautfully. jose CMF
