ULAANBAATAR – One of the world’s smallest Catholic flocks is growing in number, after the Mongolian Church added three native women to its ranks on Christmas Eve, nearly four months after Pope Francis’s visit earlier this year.
There’s no other country on earth where the addition of just three converts would warrant much news. But given that there are only an estimated 1,450 Catholics out of Mongolia’s overall population of 3.3 million, here such a small bump is especially meaningful.
Frigid temperatures and a broken internal heating system did not prevent the faithful from filling up Saints Peter and Paul Cathedral in Ulaanbaatar on Christmas Eve, most of whom wore heavy winter gear throughout the nearly two-hour liturgy.
Cardinal Giorgio Marengo, an Italian Consolata missionary who has lived and ministered in Mongolia since 2002, presided over the liturgy, delivering a homily in fluent Mongolian that focused on the joy of Jesus’s birth and the light he brings to a dark world, and offering a brief summary in English, before baptising the women.
Each of the three women, who preferred not to give their names, were Mongolian, two of whom are siblings and the third is a student who lives at a hostel run by missionary nuns in Ulaanbaatar.
The siblings reportedly saw the student, who is their neighbour, attending mass at Saint Mary’s Catholic parish in Ulaanbaatar and became curious about Catholicism.
They began making inquiries about the church and the Catholic faith, and eventually met with the pastor of Saints Peter and Paul Cathedral at the time, the late Father Kim Stephano.
Stephano invited the siblings to start attending Mass and soon after they asked to join the Catholic Church and to receive the sacraments. They underwent two years of catechetical instruction prior to their baptism on Christmas Eve.
The third woman would often join the sisters for Mass during the week, and also would attend Mass with them on Sundays. Her interest in the Catholic Church grew over time, culminating with her request to become a full member.
Marengo baptized them during the cathedral’s Christmas Eve Mass, and he also presided over Christmas morning Mass the next day, offering attendees a translation into Mongolian of Pope Francis’s own homily from the Christmas vigil Mass, which centred on the littleness and humility of Jesus, as opposed to the strong and powerful messiah many had expected.
He also noted that Christmas is a working day in Mongolia – a Buddhist nation where Catholics number less than 1,500 – and said the silence of Jesus’s birth amid the chaos of everyday life is a chance to reflect on how his grace penetrates without making a scene, and that we should imitate his smallness and humility.
Prior to Christmas, some 400 children and youth from Mongolia’s small Catholic community gathered in the cathedral’s parish hall, where they put on a Christmas play.
The vibrancy of Mongolia’s small Catholic community is due in large part to the presence and work of foreign missionaries, who come from all over the world, including Italy, Rwanda, Cameroon, India and beyond.
Religion in Mongolia is only beginning to regain its footprint following 70 years of Soviet communism, with Catholic missionaries returning in the mid-1990s.
Pope Francis became the first-ever pontiff to visit Mongolia when he travelled to Ulaanbaatar from Aug. 31-Sept. 4, meeting with Mongolian President Ukhnaagiin Khürelsük and Prime Minister Oyun-Erdene Luvsannamsrai, as well as representatives of the country’s various religious traditions, including Buddhism, Islam, Shamanism and Evangelical Christians, among others.
Ahead of Pope Francis’s visit, several missionaries spoke to media saying it was a unique opportunity to educate locals about the Catholic faith, as most are unfamiliar with the Pope and with the Church generally.
Throughout his summer visit, Francis praised the work of local missionaries and touted the benefits of the Catholic Church’s charitable social projects, while also offering assurances to political leaders still suspicious about religion that the Church is not a threat but is a benefit through its service to the poor and needy.
The visit was the culmination of 800 years of correspondence, as the Holy See and Mongolia have had diplomatic contact since the 13th century, when Pope Innocent IV in 1246 sent a delegate to Mongolia to establish ties with the Han emperors.
Italian Archbishop Giovanni da Pian del Carpine, a papal diplomat and explorer, became one of the first Europeans to enter the court of the Great Khan of the Mongol Empire in 1246 bearing a letter from Innocent IV. This set in motion an exchange of correspondence which to this day is preserved in the Vatican Archives.
While Christmas is not a nationally recognised holiday in Mongolia, Christmas trees and ice sculptures adorn the city, and traditional holiday songs can be heard in shopping malls and various shops throughout the city centre.
Following the Christmas events, Marengo is taking a few days of spiritual retreat before returning for the New Year’s liturgies, which include a prayer vigil on New Year’s Eve, and Mass for the Solemnity of Mary, Mother of God on 1 January 2024.
Children in traditional Mongolian dress welcome Pope Francis in Ulaanbaatar, capital city of Mongolia, 4 September 2023. (Photo by ANDREW MEDICHINI/POOL/AFP via Getty Images.)
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