Pope Francis interacts with the crowd gathered outside the Cathedral of Sts. Peter and Paul on Sept. 2., 2023, in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia. / Vatican Media
CNA Newsroom, Sep 2, 2023 / 07:23 am (CNA).
While the Catholic population in Mongolia is on… […]
Pope Francis stands beside Mongolian President Ukhnaagiin Khürelsükh in Sukhbaatar Square in front of the State Palace in Ulaanbaatar on Sept. 2, 2023. / Vatican Media
Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia, Sep 1, 2023 / 21:50 pm (CNA).
Pope Francis called Mon… […]
Cardinal Giorgio Marengo was one of the first to welcome Pope Francis to Mongolia on Sept. 1, 2023. Marengo is an Italian cardinal who has served as a missionary in Mongolia for nearly 20 years. He is the current apostolic prefect of Ulaanbaatar… […]
Schoolchildren eagerly wait for the pope’s arrival outside of the apostolic prefecture on Sept. 1, 2023, in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia, where Pope Francis will be staying for the duration of his four-day visit to the country. / Credit: Colm Flynn/EWT… […]
Pope Francis’ arrival in Mongolia / Courtney Mares
Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia, Aug 31, 2023 / 20:40 pm (CNA).
Pope Francis made history Friday morning when he became the first pope to travel to Mongolia, the world’s most sparsely populated sovereign country.
The papal plane touched down in the Mongolian capital of Ulaanbaatar at 9:52 a.m. local time on Sept. 1. As Pope Francis debarked from the plane at Chinggis Khaan International Airport, he was welcomed by the Asian country’s foreign minister and a young woman who offered the pope a cup of traditional Mongolian dried curds.
Pope Francis told journalists aboard the chartered ITA Airways plane that to visit Mongolia is to encounter “a small people, but a big culture.”
“I think it will do us good to understand this silence … to understand what it means, but not intellectually, with the senses. Mongolia can be understood with the senses,” he said.
Roughly the size of Alaska, Mongolia has five people per square mile. About 30% of its population is nomadic or semi-nomadic. Bordering Russia to the north and China to the south, Mongolia is also the second-largest landlocked country in the world with the vast Gobi Desert covering one-third of its territory.
During the nearly 10-hour flight, the papal plane passed over more than 10 countries, including Bosnia Herzegovina, Montenegro, Bulgaria, Turkey, Georgia, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, and China.
The pope sent a message to the leaders of each of these countries, including Chinese President Xi Jinping. Pope Francis told the Chinese leader that he was praying for the well-being of the nation of China and asked for the “divine blessings of unity and peace.”
The 86-year-old pope will spend the first day in the Mongolian capital resting at the apostolic prefecture. His first public event will be a welcome ceremony on Sept. 2 in the city’s Sükhbaatar Square with President Ukhnaagiin Khürelsükh. He will later meet with the country’s small Catholic community in the city’s Cathedral of Sts. Peter and Paul.
Mongolia is home to 1,450 Catholics, which is far fewer than 1% of the country’s 3.3 million people. The Apostolic Prefecture of Ulaanbaatar, a missionary area that does not have enough Catholics to warrant a diocese, has jurisdiction over the entirety of Mongolia.
The first modern mission to Mongolia was in 1922 and was entrusted to the Congregation of the Immaculate Heart of Mary. But under a communist government, religious expression was soon thereafter suppressed, until 1992. Mongolia’s first native priest was ordained in 2016.
Last year, Pope Francis named an Italian who had served as a missionary in Mongolia for nearly 20 years as the world’s youngest cardinal. Cardinal Giorgio Marengo, 49, is the apostolic prefect of Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia, which serves the entire country.
The motto of the pope’s four-day trip to Mongolia is “Hoping Together.” In his Angelus address this week, Pope Francis said that the trip “will be an opportunity to embrace a Church that is small in number but vibrant in faith and great in charity, and also to meet at close quarters a noble, wise people with a strong religious tradition that I will have the honor of getting to know, especially in the context of an interreligious event.”
“I ask all of you to accompany this visit with your prayers,” he said.
Pope Francis greets airline workers as he boards the papal plane for his four-day trip to Mongolia on Aug. 31, 2023. / Credit: Vatican Media
CNA Newsroom, Aug 31, 2023 / 20:00 pm (CNA).
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Mongolian President Tsakhiagiin Elbegdorj walks past Republican Guards as he arrives before his meeting with French President Francois Hollande at the Elysee Palace on Nov. 19, 2015, in Paris. / Credit: Chesnot/Getty Images
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This picture taken on Jan. 16, 2022, shows a man watching smoke hanging over houses on a polluted day in Ulaanbaatar, the capital of Mongolia. / Credit: Byambasuren Byamba-Ochir/AFP via Getty Images
Rome Newsroom, Aug 28, 2023 / 01:00 am (CNA)…. […]
Father Isaac Honsan, pastor of St. Paul’s Church, stands in the rubble after the church was set on fire in a recent attack. / Photo credit: Anto Akkara
Indore, India, Aug 16, 2023 / 13:30 pm (CNA).
As India celebrated its 77th Independence Day marking freedom from colonial British rule on Aug. 15, the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of India (CBCI) asserted the patriotism of Christians and called for “resolving internal challenges with empathy, understanding, and unity.”
“India’s journey to freedom was not solely forged on the battlefield but also through unwavering determination, sacrifices, and visionary leadership from those of diverse backgrounds, including the Christian community,” the CBCI said in a press release.
Though British imperialism spread in India when the East India Company began trading there in the 17th century, the British Parliament took total control over the Indian subcontinent in 1858.
Following the massive freedom struggle led by Mahatma Gandhi — the prophet of nonviolence — the British ended their rule over the Indian subcontinent in August 1947, dividing it into Hindu-majority India and Muslim-majority Pakistan.
Hindu nationalist outlets, under the influence of the ruling BJP (the Bharatiya Janata Party, one of the two major Indian political parties alongside the Indian National Congress), have called into question the patriotism of India’s 34 million Christians. The CBCI statement addressed the charge, saying: “Christian freedom fighters left an indelible mark on India’s history. Their dedication and sacrifices serve as a poignant reminder that the fight for freedom was a collective endeavor that transcended religious and cultural boundaries.”
“Our nation’s strength is derived from its ability to confront and resolve internal challenges with empathy, understanding, and unity. The diverse fabric of our country is a source of strength, but it also requires ongoing efforts to ensure that every citizen’s rights and aspirations are respected and protected,” the bishops stated.
In an apparent criticism of the 105-day-old bloody ethnic conflict in the northeastern state of Manipur — in which ethnic Christian Kuki tribes have been targeted — the CBCI further called for “meaningful dialogue seeking solutions that prioritize the well-being and future of all the citizens, especially those who are suffering and feel abandoned due to conflicts, sentiments of hatred, and acts of violence.”
The tiny state of Manipur, with a population of 3.7 million, has been engulfed in a violent conflict between ethnic Kuki tribals and Meiteis that began May 3 following a solidarity march by members of the Christian Kuki tribal community in south Manipur. The protest was against a controversial order from the state high court for extending Scheduled Tribe status to the ethnic Meiteis. (Scheduled Tribe status is a provision of India’s national constitution that mandates free education and quotas in professions such as medicine and engineering, as well as government jobs.) The Meiteis were originally followers of indigenous Sanamahism and many converted to Hinduism as well as Christianity. Christians constitute more than 52% of the state’s population.
Reports of tribal Kuki attacks on ethnic Meiteis spread like wildfire after the protest, which in turn plunged the Imphal Valley, which accommodates 90% of Manipur’s population, into an outburst of violence against Kuki tribal Christians. At the same time, ethnic Meitei settlements in the Kuki-dominated hills surrounding the valley were also targets of violence.
“It is our earnest appeal that the governance system should uphold the secular fabric of our country, reinforce constitutional values, and cultivate an environment of peaceful coexistence of various communities,” the CBCI statement said.
A CBCI delegation led by its president, Archbishop Andrews Thazhath, visited Manipur in late July. According to the Times of India, Biren Singh, the beleaguered BJP chief minister of Manipur, in a statement on Independence Day eve acknowledged that “with over 150 dead and hundreds injured, homes and places of faith razed to the ground, we are not leaving a good legacy for our children and future generations.”
The Catholic Church in Manipur, which accounts for 100,000 members among the 1.5 million Christians in the state, welcomed the CBCI statement for Independence Day.
“The beauty of this country is the diversity of culture, faith, and ethnicity, with a feeling of common brotherhood,” Father Varghese Velickagam, vicar general of the Archdiocese of Imphal, which covers the entire Manipur state, told CNA Aug. 15.
“Any forces that scheme to destroy these noble ideals should be resisted immediately,” said Velickagam, who issued a summary of the violence against Christian targets in early August and stated that more than 600 churches had been destroyed.
“The resolution of the crisis in the northeastern state [Manipur] is possible only through ‘peace’ and the central [federal] and the state government is putting all its efforts into it,” said Prime Minister Narendra Modi in his Independence Day address.
However, Modi has been widely criticized, even internationally, for his protracted silence on Manipur bloodshed as the state government, led by the BJP, has failed to curb the bloodshed against the Kuki tribal Christians and has even condoned it.
“Killings will only stop when the assailants are arrested and put behind bars,” pointed out Colin Gonsalves, a Christian lawyer who has been representing Kuki tribal groups in the Supreme Court of India, in an interview.
“No communal attack can continue in the country without the state head giving support … The police can stop violence in 24 hours if they are told,” Gonsalves said, pointing to state complicity in the unabated violence in his interview, which has gone viral.
Pakistanis protest Nov. 2, 2018, in Lahore, shortly after the nation’s supreme court acquitted Asia Bibi of blasphemy charges. / AMSyed/Shutterstock.
Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Aug 15, 2023 / 15:02 pm (CNA).
Pakistani lawmakers passed legislation that could land someone a life sentence in prison for insulting any wife, family member, or companion of the Islamic prophet Muhammad.
The Criminal Laws (Amendment) Act, 2023, which would set a maximum penalty of life in prison for such offenses with a minimum sentence of 10 years in prison, has now passed both houses of Parliament. Under current law, blasphemy violations are only punishable by up to three years in prison, a fine, or both.
To become law, the bill still needs the president’s signature.
Pakistan’s lower legislative chamber, the National Assembly, passed the bill in January and the country’s upper chamber, the Senate, passed it last week on Aug. 7. The goal of this bill, based on its statement of objectives, is to crack down on “blasphemy on the internet and social media,” which has led to “terrorism” and “disruption in the country,” according to the Pakistani English-language newspaper Dawn.
The anti-blasphemy law would apply to any person who directly or indirectly “defiles the sacred name” of any wife, family member, or companion of Muhammad through written word, spoken word, visible representation, imputation, innuendo, or insinuation. The companions of Muhammad refer to Muslims who personally met him during his life.
Pakistan already punishes those who defile or insult the Qur’an with life imprisonment. Those who defile the name of Muhammad or other Muslim prophets are punished with death. The Muslim prophets include Abraham, Moses, Elijah, Jesus, and other biblical figures.
Human rights groups have raised concerns that the laws could be used to target religious minorities in Pakistan. More than 95% of Pakistan is Muslim, and more than 75% of the country follows Sunni Islam.
From 1987 through the beginning of 2021, more than 1,800 people were charged with blasphemy under the country’s various anti-blasphemy laws. As of March of this year, there were about 40 people who were either serving life sentences or on death row for blasphemy convictions. Since 1990, more than 80 people have been murdered for alleged blasphemy.
In one high-profile case, a Christian woman named Asia Bibi was convicted of blasphemy in 2010, but her conviction was overturned by the Pakistani Supreme Court in 2018. She denied the allegation that she violated the blasphemy law and ultimately sought refuge in Canada.
“Pakistani governments usually turn to the blasphemy laws when there is a political crisis, and to deflect attention from the country’s continuing economic and social woes,” Paul Marshall, the head of the South and Southeast Asian Action Team at the Religious Freedom Institute, told CNA. “The current push to strengthen the laws continues this trend.”
“While half the victims are Muslim, the blasphemy laws disproportionately victimize religious minorities, and repeated studies have shown that they are used as a means of intimidation or score-settling in private disputes,” Marshall said. “The proposed increase in such laws will increase the climate of religious fear that already grips minorities.”
Christian Solidarity Worldwide (CSW), a human rights group that advocates for religious freedom and against the persecution of Christians, has also come out strongly against the legislation.
Mervyn Thomas, president of CSW, said the organization is “deeply disappointed” in the passing of the legislation and warned that there is “overwhelming evidence of how the existing blasphemy legislation has resulted in extra-judicial killings and countless incidents of mob violence based on false accusations.”
“Making the blasphemy laws more stringent could inflame the situation further and is the opposite of what is needed,” Thomas said in his statement.
Pakistan’s anti-blasphemy laws have been used against Christians and Hindus, who make up less than 5% of the country’s population. The laws related to insulting the companions of Muhammad and some other anti-blasphemy laws have also been used to target minority sects of Islam in the country, such as Shia Muslims, who make up about 15% of the population, and Ahmadi Muslims, who make up less than 3% of the population.
One of the key disagreements that separates Shia Islam from Sunni Islam rests on beliefs about who was the legitimate successor of Muhammad, which leads to accusations against Shia Muslims that they are insulting the companions of Muhammad when they voice their disagreements. The Sunnis recognize Abu Bakr, a companion of Muhammad, as Muhammad’s successor. Many Shia Muslims view him as an illegitimate leader and believe that Muhammad appointed Ali ibn Abi Talib, another companion of Muhammad, as his successor.
© Catholic World Report