Mongolia has little arable land and suffers from corruption, poverty, alcoholism, and human trafficking.

Despite the government’s provision of education for every citizen, the poverty rate is still near 30%. The
government also requires that religion be kept out of the public domain, and that schools be kept from
debating religion at all. Priests cannot dress in public as priests, and it is unlawful to openly confess one's
religion. Most of this legislation is based on the philosophy that religion is merely "the opium of the
people."

(ANS - Ulaanbaatar) - When Mongolia became a democratic country in the early 1990s, the government
requested diplomatic relations with the Holy See and the sending of Catholic missionaries.

The first missionaries came in 1992 and included the current Apostolic Prefect of Ulaanbaatar, Msgr.
Wenceslao Padilla, CICM, with the first Salesians arriving in 2001. Now that the Catholic Church
celebrates its 25th anniversary in Mongolia, Fr Václav Klement, Councilor of the Salesian Region of East
Asia-Oceania, recalls what has been done so far and looks at the future of the mission in the country.

What role do Salesians have in the Church and Mongol society?

 The Catholic Church in Mongolia has just 1 local priest and about 1,000 Mongolian faithful, along
with 80 missionaries. The Salesian Family plays a fairly important role.

 There are 11 Salesians from 9 nations, 6 Daughters of Mary Help of Christians (FMA) and 18
Salesian Cooperators, all locals, along with some lay missionaries.

 In this young Church, the elderly, children and teens represent the majority, while there are only
few complete families. The Youth Ministry of the Apostolic Prefecture is animated by FMA and
the Salesians, and the Salesian Cooperators of Darkhan also give their contribution.

 The simple "Don Bosco Media" in Darkhan is the only Catholic publisher and publishes various
aids for catechesis and youth education and a small youth magazine called "Don Bosco" that is
issued and distributed in public schools.

 In total, the Salesians animate 2 parishes, one technical school, 2 youth centers and one family
home, while the FMA is a kindergarten, elementary school and a youth center.

What are the priorities for the future of the Salesian presence?

 Above all, the formation of the same Salesian missionaries: we need to invest in the study of the
language and make sure that at least one confrere is available each year for some form of
teaching.

 Also needed: at least another 2-3 missionaries in the next 6 years; a closer link with other
Provinces; even missionary volunteers; an investment in the formation of lay collaborators ...
We need to keep pace with the situation of rapid social-cultural-economic development bearing
in mind that Mongolia is a place of first evangelization.
  The Mission in Mongolia offers many challenges to missionaries: an extreme climate, from -40 °
C to 40 ° C between winter and summer; a difficult language, difficulties with visas, difficult legal
and economic situations. It takes a lot of faith!

Mongolia: A Twenty-Five Year Old Church: The Challenges Of Mission

Uncategorised / By Comboni Missionaries Ireland

The Catholic Church in Mongolia recently turned twenty-five. It was only in 1992 that the first Catholic
community was set up in its capital-city Ulaanbaatar, shortly after the Mongolian government
established diplomatic relations with the Vatican.

The Congregation of the Immaculate Heart of Mary, Missionhurst CICM, was asked to send missionaries
to the new mission. The first to go were three CICM priests who were still involved in missionary
activities in Japan, Taiwan and Hong Kong. Among them was Philippine-born Fr. Wenceslao Padilla, who
then served as provincial-superior in Taiwan. He now has the distinction of being not only the first but
also the longest-serving missionary in Mongolia. He was appointed its bishop in 2003.

When the three priests first set foot on Mongolian soil, they were literally starting from scratch and
ground zero. There was no church or convent or native Catholics to welcome them in the land of horses,
nomads, and blue sky. They initially stayed in hotels and later moved into rented apartments which
doubled-up as their mission headquarters.

The only Catholics they came across were a handful of expatriates working in international aid agencies
or the Polish and other embassies. Like the early Christians, the three priests ministered out of house-
churches, going from home to home to celebrate the Eucharist and supporting one another in the faith.
The attendees soon brought along their colleagues and friends, including local Mongolians, and with
time they had to rent community halls for the Sunday celebrations.

But it was their mission that brought them out to the public sphere and revealed the face of the Church
to the Mongolian society. Noticing that many homeless runaway street-children were hanging out in the
capital city in the 1990s in the aftermath of the Soviet pull-out which resulted in economic turmoil, the
new missionaries began their mission by befriending them, bringing them tea, pancakes, medicine and
clothing. They were later invited to visit the underground rat-infested sewers, which housed the heating
pipes that served as homes to the children needing to escape the harsh winters.

The priests became familiar with the manholes in the city and in particular the “residents” living beneath
each of them. As their ministry expanded they sought the assistance of their neighbours and youth
groups to serve the street children. Having rubbed shoulders with the missionaries and marvelling at
their selfless service, some would inevitably ask about Catholicism and eventually joined the Church.
Today, there are few children left roaming the streets and the Catholic Church in Mongolia runs
orphanages and care centres housing many of them.

With time, the ministries expanded to providing formal education as well as social and other forms of
services, with other Catholic religious congregations being invited in to set up appropriate centres to
cater to the peoples’ needs. Today, twenty-five years later, there are more than 70 missionaries from
about two dozen countries and representing a dozen congregations serving in Mongolia. They come
mainly from African countries such as Congo, Cameroon and Tanzania, Asian countries such as the
Philippines, Korea and India, and European countries such as Spain, France, Italy and Poland.
The Society of the Divine Word runs a technical school providing training to young men and women in
the areas of secretariat service, plumbing, welding, mechanics, sewing, and so on. The Sisters of the
Missionaries of Charity have set up homes for the aged, orphans, and for the sick and dying. The Sisters
of St. Paul de Chartres operate some of the best kindergartens and health care centres, primarily for the
benefit of those who would otherwise not have access to basic education and medical services.

Caritas Mongolia offers relief services when disasters and catastrophes strike, reaching out especially to
peoples living in the interior and remote villages, accessible only by 4-wheel drive trucks through
unpaved roads. All these ministries are supported by the 1,300+ native Mongolians who have since
asked for baptism into the Church.

Like any fledging mission, there are of course many challenges which confront the Church as it continues
its evangelizing efforts in the land of the great Mongol warriors of old. Chief among these is the poverty
of the people, which brings with it a host of problems such as unemployment, alcoholism and domestic
abuse.

The Church’s mission has therefore concentrated on communities who are poor, which effectively
means that they are engaged in non-income-generating ministries. Reliance on the outside-world for
funds is a major burden as they are at times inconsistent. The bishop sometimes describes himself as a
“professional beggar”, as the young Church depends on the generosity of more established Churches in
developed countries as its does not have the resources to sustain the many projects for the least, the
last and the lost.

Another major challenge is that all the missionaries are in Mongolia on work visas which need to be
renewed regularly, sometimes annually. One can only imagine the difficulties resulting from the non-
renewal of the visas, especially how its impact on the ministries. There are occasions when priests and
Sisters have had to leave the country on the eve of their visa expiration date and wait outside for
months before they can re-enter. At times the reason or excuse given for the non-renewal of visas is
that the missionary is proselytizing the locals.

This charge is better appreciated against the backdrop that there is a resurgence of Buddhism in
Mongolia in the post-communist era. Christianity, therefore, is viewed as a threat. Aside from these
issues, there are also the difficulties confronting the missionaries such as the minus 30 or 40 C
temperatures, the remoteness of lifestyle in mission outposts and also the difficulty of learning the
language, with its hard guttural sounds and use of the Cyrillic alphabet.

Not only is the perseverance rate among the missionaries a challenge, the perseverance rate of the local
converts to Catholicism is also a reality that confronts the Church. Of the 1,300+ who have received
baptism perhaps only a few hundreds remain active church goers. That in itself is not bad as it
represents about 30 or 40% of the Catholic population especially if this is compared with the many so-
called “Catholic” countries in the West where church participation rates are as low as single digit
percentage figures.

However, most of the regular church goers in Mongolian are the Catholics who are employees of the
many ministries of the Church. Those who cease working in these ministries usually move on to other
jobs and soon lose contact with the Church as well. Others go abroad in search for greener pastures.
Needless to say, the way forward is for the Mongolian Church to develop its very own local Church, in all
its facets, including self-governing, self-supporting and self-propagating. Remembering that many other
Churches around the world took a few centuries to reach that stage, one can only be proud that as it
celebrates its 25th anniversary, the Catholic Church in Mongolia has been making inroads in that
direction. It is slowly but surely developing into a local Church, having inculturated significant aspects of
the Catholic tradition.

The Cathedral of Saints Peter and Paul, built in 2003, is modelled after the traditional ger (nomadic tent),
with its circular shape and walls of thick felt. A Mongolian version of the Bible was printed in 2004 which
includes common Catholic prayers, all written in the traditional Mongolian script. The six parishes in the
country and the 1,300+ baptized natives rejoiced at the ordination of the first native-born priest just a
year ago, a young man baptized as a child by Bishop Wens many years ago. There are a few more
seminarians currently studying in the seminary in South Korea. They, together with the other native
Mongolian Catholics, will be the ones forging the way towards a truly Mongolian Church.

– Edmund Chia and Gemma Cruz