ULAANBAATAR (UCAN): The Catholic Church in Mongolia paid tribute to Belgian missionary Father Robert Goessens, of the Congregation of the Immaculate Heart of Mary [CICM], who died in Japan on August 15 at the age of 97, Fides reported on August 20.
Father Goessens was among the pioneers who revived the Catholic Church in Mongolia after the end of communist rule in the 1990s.
He was a key figure in the early development of the contemporary Catholic presence in Mongolia, as a member of the first group of three CICM missionaries to arrive in Ulaanbaatar in July 1992.
Together with Father [later bishop] Wenceslao Padilla, a Filipino missionary who became the first apostolic prefect of Ulaanbaatar, and Father Gilbert Sales, he was entrusted with establishing the mission that had withered.
The Apostolic Prefecture of Ulaanbaatar paid tribute to Father Goessens, describing him as one of the first missionaries to help lay the foundations of the Catholic Church in Mongolia.
Together with Father [later bishop] Wenceslao Padilla, a Filipino missionary who became the first apostolic prefect of Ulaanbaatar, and Father Gilbert Sales, he was entrusted with establishing the mission that had withered
The statement recalled his faithful service alongside his confreres and his commitment to sowing “faith, hope, compassion and love” among the Mongolian people.
“May the seeds of faith he planted in Mongolia, the love of Christ he shared and the hope to which he bore witness continue to bear fruit in the life of the Catholic Church in Mongolia,” the statement read.
His funeral was held in the presence of his CICM confreres in Japan on August 18.
Following their arrival in Mongolia on 10 July 1992, the three missionaries learnt the Mongolian language, met a population that knew little or nothing about the Catholic faith, and patiently laid the foundations of an ecclesial community, Fides reported.
There are about 1,500 Catholics in Mongolia according to Church sources. Pope Francis was the first pope to visit between 31 Aug and 4 September 2023.
Father Goessens was born in 1928. He joined the CICM congregation—popularly known as the Scheut Missionaries and Verbists—founded by Father Théophile Verbist in Scheut, near Brussels.
‘May the seeds of faith he planted in Mongolia, the love of Christ he shared and the hope to which he bore witness continue to bear fruit in the life of the Catholic Church in Mongolia’
He arrived in Japan as a missionary in 1955, shortly after his ordination, and worked there for 37 years before moving to Mongolia.
In Japan, he was based mostly in the Diocese of Osaka and in the parish of Sakai. He is credited with pioneering work in social services and child welfare.
Among other initiatives, he founded the Junshinkai social welfare organisation, under whose auspices several kindergartens and childcare centres were established. His concern for the most vulnerable and for children, combined with a profound respect for local cultures, became a distinctive feature of his ministry.
In 2012, the Catholic Church in Mongolia celebrated two decades of revival. Father Goessens returned to take part in celebrations and to reunite with the people with whom he had shared the founding years of the mission. That was his last visit to the country.
