Lively in faith’Pope Francis heads to Mongolia With Eye on Diplomacy│APNAQANOON
‘Lively in faith’: Pope Francis heads to Mongolia with eye on diplomacy
Mongolia, bordering Russia and China, could help ease church’s troubled relations with Beijing and support the pontiff’s efforts for dialogue on Ukraine. Pope Francis has a reputation for visiting some of the world’s most remote countries, even in places where Catholics are few in number. So, it may not be too surprising that this week he will be in Mongolia, a nation with just 1,450 Catholics.
Francis will arrive in the Mongolian capital on September 1 and stay until September 4, with plans to meet the country’s Catholic faithful, celebrate mass and engage in inter-religious dialogue.
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Talking about the visit at St Peter’s Square on the Sunday before his departure, the 86-year-old pope told the crowd the church there was “small in numbers, but lively in faith and great in charity”.
But there may be more to the papal visit than religion.
The pope’s schedule also includes a full day of meetings with Mongolia’s political leaders, with conversations likely to touch on Mongolia’s relations with its two giant neighbors, Russia and China. That is important now more than ever as Francis seeks dialogue between the West and Russia to find a way out of the now-18-month-old war in Ukraine.
The pope is also looking for avenues to speak to China’s leadership over the governance of that country’s estimated 10 to 12 million Catholics. The Holy See and Beijing have not had official diplomatic relations for more than 70 years and relations between the two have been strained over the appointment of bishops and creation of dioceses despite an agreement on the issue in 2018. READ MORE
