What the pope’s visit to Mongolia says about his priorities and how he is changing the Catholic Church
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Tuesday, August 22, 2023
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Pope Francis’ upcoming visit to Mongolia, which is home to fewer than 1,500 Catholics, has elicited curiosity among Catholics and non-Catholics alike.
Key Points:
- Pope Francis’ upcoming visit to Mongolia, which is home to fewer than 1,500 Catholics, has elicited curiosity among Catholics and non-Catholics alike.
- This will be the pope’s 43rd trip abroad since his election on March 13, 2013: He has visited 12 countries in the Americas, 11 in Asia and 10 in Africa.
Prioritizing the poor
- While previous popes have included the poor in their speeches, what has distinguished this pope is that he has focused on the Global South and prioritized immigrants, refugees and the less privileged, from Bolivia to Myanmar to Mongolia.
- At his July 2013 visit to the Italian island of Lampedusa to commemorate migrants who had drowned in the Mediterranean Sea, Francis gave a blistering critique of the world’s failure to care for the poor: “In this globalized world, we have fallen into globalized indifference.
- And Josefina told me back in 2017 that this pope is “the real deal” in terms of supporting immigrants and the poor.
Francis and liberation theology
- According to Austen Ivereigh prior to his becoming pope, Francis — then Jorge Mario Bergoglio – condemned liberation theology as well.
- He would say “that they were for the people but never with them,” wrote Ivereigh, in his biography of Pope Francis.
Journeying to Mongolia
- How does the pope’s upcoming visit to Mongolia factor into this decade-spanning trajectory of his people-focused liberation?
- Christianity has been present in Mongolia since the seventh century.
- In addition to this branch of Eastern Christianity, Tibetan Buddhism came to Mongolia in the 13th century, as did Islam.
- Today, Buddhism is the dominant religion of Mongolia, while Islam and Christianity remain very small percentages at 3% and 2.5%.
A strategic visit
- And yet, according to the World Bank, the economic forecast for Mongolia remains “promising” because of its rich natural resources, such as gold, copper, coal and other minerals.
- Two rail lines connecting Mongolia to China were installed in January 2022 and a third is being built.
- The pope’s visit will be bold given the challenges before Mongolia and its geographic location between Russia and China.