The Pope enthusiastically received by the Catholics of Mongolia

Pope Francis was welcomed on Friday with enthusiasm and hope by the modest Catholic community of Mongolia, a nation landlocked between Russia and China, where he is making an unprecedented visit.

“For me, the pope’s visit to Mongolia is extraordinary and I am happy to see him,” Ganzorig Jamyan, a retiree, who came to welcome the sovereign pontiff told AFP.

“I’m here because I wanted to see him in person,” he added, sporting a traditional hat and jacket, and calling the pope a “very good person.”

In a wheelchair due to knee pain, the 86-year-old Pope Francis arrived in Ulaanbaatar in the morning. At the airport, a hedge of the Mongolian honor guard in traditional blue, red and yellow dress, and Foreign Minister Batmunkh Battsetseg were waiting for him.

The visit scheduled until Monday in this predominantly Buddhist country is a gesture of support for the small community of Catholics which has around 1,400 faithful for more than three million inhabitants.

But it is also strategic in the geopolitical context, marking “a clear effort by the Holy See” not to “abandon (the region) to Russia or China”, according to Michel Chambon, specialist in Catholics in Asia.

Shortly after his arrival, the pope visited the home of Bishop Giorgio Marengo, who at 49 is the youngest cardinal in the Catholic Church.

He was greeted by a crowd of hundreds chanting “Vive le pape!”, while children sang for him.

Among the crowd, Sister Aleth Evangelista told AFP that she and her fellow nuns felt “blessed and lucky to welcome the pope to this country”.

“Mongolia is a non-Christian country, most people are Buddhists and shamanists, but the pope is here to encourage peace and communion among all peoples,” she added.

Waving flags of her country, Khijigjargal Darisuren, a young Mongolian who also made the trip, said she was also delighted.

“I am very happy that a man like him is coming to Mongolia, it’s a rare occasion,” she said, adding that she was not baptized but went “regularly to church”.

This trip, the 43rd in a decade at the head of the Catholic Church, is crucial for the Vatican’s relations with Beijing and Moscow, where Francis has not yet been invited.

To a journalist on board the papal plane who asked him if he found it difficult to do diplomacy, the pope replied: “Yes, you don’t know how difficult it is”.

“Sometimes you have to have a sense of humor.”

As the plane flew over China, the pope sent a telegram of “good wishes” to President Xi Jinping and the Chinese people, following the tradition of greeting the leaders of countries whose airspace he is crossing.

In response, Beijing said it wanted to “strengthen mutual trust” with the Vatican and “promote the process of improving bilateral relations”.

China and the Vatican do not have diplomatic relations but last year renewed an agreement on the thorny issue of bishop appointments.

Once an integral part of Genghis Khan’s empire, Mongolia depends on Russia for its energy imports and China for the export of its raw materials.

While remaining neutral, it has engaged in a “third neighbor” policy, strengthening its relations with other nations including the United States, Japan and South Korea.

This makes Mongolia potentially useful for relations between the Vatican and Beijing, but also with Moscow as Francis has sought to broker an end to the war in Ukraine.

This trip is also a test of endurance for the pope, who continues to travel a lot despite an abdominal hernia operated on in June.

After a day of rest, he will meet President Ukhnaa Khurelsukh and Prime Minister Luvsannamsrai Oyun-Erdene on Saturday, and deliver a speech to authorities, diplomats and members of civil society.

He will meet the Catholic community – which has only 25 priests and 33 nuns, including only two Mongols – on Saturday in the Cathedral of Saints Peter and Paul.

On Sunday, the pope will address an inter-religious meeting, which the rector of the Russian Orthodox Church in Ulaanbaatar is expected to attend, and then preside over a mass in an ice hockey arena.

Pilgrims from countries in the region are expected there, the Vatican said, including from Russia, China, South Korea, Thailand, Vietnam, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Azerbaijan.

01/09/2023 17:12:29 – Ulaanbaatar (AFP) – © 2023 AFP