2023-09-02 11:09:04
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The pope is visiting Mongolia, a country of three million inhabitants, but which has regarding 1,400 faithful. He explained that the Church does not send its missionaries “to propagate political thought”.
The pope’s trip to Mongolia this weekend gives rise to coded messages between nearby China and the Vatican. No sooner had François sent a telegram to the Chinese president from the plane on Friday – according to diplomatic usage when he flies over a country – than a rather benevolent response came to him from Beijing. China then assertedwant to build mutual trustwith the Vatican believing that the pope’s words “reflected friendship and goodwill“. However, day-to-day relations are tense, Beijing no longer respecting a bilateral agreement signed in 2018 with the Vatican on the appointment of bishops for a year.
Saturday, following a day of rest, François, 86, reaffirmed to anyone who wanted to listen, in front of the Catholic religious engaged in Mongolia, that the Church did not send its missionaries “to propagate political thought» and that she only represented « no risk for secular authorities “. Message first addressed to the Mongolian government which recently restricted visas for foreign priests and nuns for fear of the “proselytizing“. And an indirect message, also intended for Beijing, where Francis wishes to be invited one day.
Bilateral agreement
In his speech on the trip addressed to the Mongolian public and diplomatic authorities, the head of the Catholic Church explained to an assembly which knows very little regarding the Catholic Church, which is a very small minority in this country with less than 1,500 baptized persons, that Catholics were “ready to make their contribution to building a prosperous and secure society“. But that they neededlegislation that is far-sighted and attentive to concrete needs of the Catholic community. The Holy See and Mongolia are negotiating a bilateral agreement.
In his welcoming remarks, Mongolian President Ukhnaagiin Khürelsüskh assured that the rapprochement with the Holy See was part of a “new pillar“of a policy”of love and peaceand defense of religious pluralism, referring, on this point, to the example given by Emperor Genghis Khan. The two men had just gathered in front of the huge statue of the father of Mongolia, who died in 1227.
Message d’encouragement
Nevertheless, the pastoral work of Catholic missionaries, who only arrived in 1992 and started from scratch, is not easy in Mongolia, as testified before the Pope by a nun of Mother Teresa, in her white sari with blue headbands, Sister Salvia Mary Vandanakara : “ this land is very rocky, sometimes it does not allow any infiltration and it does not bear fruit easily. We are inclined to despondency and we are gripped by disillusion, even if, with the help of God and under the protection of our Heavenly Mother, we move forward without fear and without hesitation. ».
To the 25 priests and 33 nuns present in this country three times the size of France, which has a population of nearly 3.5 million inhabitants, Francis, very close and attentive, often improvising in Italian, gave a strong message of ‘encouragement, inviting them’to remain in contact with God through the silence of adoration before the tabernacle which gives inner joy and calming of the heart. Jesus is the source, he is our treasure“. As for minority status, François advised: “Don’t be afraid of the small number and the success that doesn’t come, it’s not God’s way. God loves littleness. He likes to accomplish great things through smallness».
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