This Asian country is predominantly Buddhist and has one of the smallest Catholic communities in the world.
Pope Francis, 86, will visit Mongolia from August 31 to September 4, the Vatican announced in a statement on Saturday, without providing further details about the trip program.
This is the first visit by a pope to this Asian country with a Buddhist majority and which has one of the smallest Catholic communities in the world, with only about 1,500 people out of a total of three million inhabitants, according to the Vatican.
Francis, who prefers the “peripheries” to Western Catholic strongholds, announced in February that he planned to travel to that country, with which the Holy See established diplomatic relations in 1992.
Situated between Russia -of which it was a satellite in Soviet times- and China -which absorbs 86% of its exports-, Mongolia is a nation rich in mineral resources. More than a third of its inhabitants are nomadic herders. Since the dismantlement of the Soviet Union and the establishment of a democratic regime in 1990, the country has been gripped by political instability and has been affected by several corruption scandals.
In August 2022, the pope named Italian missionary Giorgio Marengo, prefect apostolic of the Mongolian capital, Ulaanbaatar, a cardinal. At 48, he became the world’s youngest cardinal.
The visit “is in line with Mongolia’s ambition to be present as an international player that is taken into account. Any official visit is welcome, especially since it helps to legitimize its position and diversify its foreign relations,” Antoine Maire told AFP. , Research Associate at the Foundation for Strategic Research specializing in Mongolia.
Source: Ambito
