Cardinal from Mongolia visits Stockport

Cardinal Marengo at St Peter's, Stockport

Source: Missio

Missio has been delighted to host His Eminence Cardinal Giorgio Marengo IMC, Apostolic Prefect of Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia recently. On Wednesday 4 February he received a wonderful welcome from Missio supporters and volunteers at St Peter's Catholic Church in Stockport, Greater Manchester. There, he celebrated a special Mission Mass and gave a fascinating talk on mission in a country where, before 1992, there were no local Catholics.

The Mass was offered for Margaret King, whose tireless work as a Red Box promoter and Local Secretary for St Peter's was legendary. We were honoured and touched to be joined by so many members of Margaret's family and it was truly wonderful to celebrate Mass with a congregation with such a strong missionary spirit and tradition.

Cardinal Marengo shared the unique challenges and joys of the nascent Church in Mongolia. Drawing on the Gospel of the day (Mark 6:1-6), the Cardinal highlighted the phrase 'he was amazed by their lack of faith'. He explained that the passage from Scripture 'reminds us of a terrible possibility' - that we might become inured to the presence of God in our midst. He explained:

'You are a vital and vibrant community, I see! But the risk is always there for us who come from Christian traditions to take it for granted that the Church is there. We can listen to Jesus' words as many times as we want. We can access the wonderful sacraments of the Church.'

The Church in Mongolia could not be more different, the Cardinal explained: "I feel privileged to be in Mongolia because I am invited to accompany people who've never had the chance to know the Lord before… to become a Catholic in Mongolia is not easy. It's not 'normal' to the point that people who turn to faith in Christ sometimes encounter a kind of resistance to be fully understood. And so, your prayers, your support, your interest in what is happening there is a great encouragement to them."

The first Catholic missionaries landed in Ulaanbaatar in 1992 and included Fr Wenceslao (Wens) Padilla, who later became the first Bishop of Mongolia.

"When Bishop Wens arrived in Mongolia, there were zero Catholics. And when I was sent to Mongolia in 2003 as a missionary, I had the grace also to experience what it means to be in a context where nobody around you is a Catholic. And there is no knowledge, no understanding of what the Catholic Church is. I've witnessed the marvellous works of the Holy Spirit who leads people on different paths towards him."

Mongolia is a country six times bigger than the UK, with a total population around the size of Greater Manchester. Many of its people still live nomadic herder lifestyles, residing in gers or yurts, which are designed to be easily picked up and moved from place to place.

Since 1992, the community of Catholics has been growing, however, there are only around 1,500 Catholics across the country and only one local priest. There are around 25 foreign missionary priests and 30 religious sisters across the country's nine Catholic parishes and many of the basic texts, such as the Catechism, are yet to be translated.

In such a setting, Cardinal Marengo explained, it all comes back to encounter: "To know Jesus is the best thing that can happen in your life. And unless there is someone who offers themselves to him for other people to know him, it will be difficult for it to happen. Though the Holy Spirit is all powerful, Christ works through the spaces of encounter we create."

The Cardinal describes this method as 'Whispering the Gospel': "Whispering has to do with a way of sharing that is very respectful and it presupposes a relationship. You don't whisper to the first person you see. But if we are good friends, we can whisper whatever is most important to us… Mission has to do with building up quality relationships."

Regular meetings are vital for the missionaries, he shared: "We live scattered in this big territory. We need to get together to pray, to share, to also be trained… because to be able to whisper the Gospel, we need to know the local culture very well."

Building positive, authentic relationships is at the heart of the mission across Mongolia. By immersing themselves in local culture, this small Church has been able to serve and enrich Mongolians - whether Catholic or not - meeting social needs such as healthcare, education and training: "The Church has always been engaged in a number of initiatives: schools, centres for informal education, healthcare centres. Recently, we brought all our services together into one big centre called the 'House of Mercy.' It was blessed by Pope Francis when he visited. It's a place where people who are experiencing especially difficult situations can find food, medical assistance and counselling, as well as a place to belong and to engage in positive relationships. 71% of what the Church does in Mongolia is aimed at promoting better life conditions.

"The country is growing very fast and you see the contrast between the city and the steppes. And these contrasts bring in also some issues, like pollution. Ulaanbaatar has a level of air pollution eight times higher than what the WHO deems acceptable. Many people suffer with respiratory diseases, because people living in the outskirts of the big city live in gers, which have stoves to keep the ger warm.

"Recently, the temperature was minus 30. People who don't have money to buy proper firewood or authorised charcoal will burn whatever they can find, so the air is very heavy."

However, he stressed, this is also a country of real wonder and beauty. And as with all missions, encounter is essential because it is a two-way exchange: "When you go to the countryside, you still have these scenes that are really amazing. You see families living in good harmony with whatever is around them. There's a very long history of wisdom, also helped by their religious attitudes, and that's why we like to talk about 'Whispering the Gospel to the heart of Mongolia'".

Cardinal Marengo recalled: "At the beginning, when I moved to that rural area, people thought I was a spy. And then there was a whole list of other options until they understood that I was none of them. We were there simply to share the Gospel of the Lord."

The comparisons with the early Church and the first Apostles resonate clearly through this relationship. There is also a deep joy present in this mission. Cardinal Marengo remembered the late Holy Father very fondly and recalled that:

"Pope Francis was very insistent on that and his first Apostolic Exhortation Evangelii Gaudium, is precisely about joy. We don't go about announcing the Gospel with a sad face; it makes no sense. And so, we too try to nurture this joy by a life of prayer, a life of simple fraternity, helping each other."

Gently, respectfully, the Church is gradually growing across Mongolia, and it was wonderful to witness Cardinal Marengo's faith and optimism.

"No one of us has the solution to the many problems that we have, and we do have many challenges and problems of different sorts. We have our own limitations. But if we help each other, especially through a sincere offering of ourselves to the Lord in prayer with depth, with conviction, the joy will spread out and will be a way to witness to the Risen Lord."

We pray with Cardinal Marengo that this witness of faith, so reminiscent of the first Apostles' experience, will continue to be a source of hope and deep joy - both to the people of Mongolia and the world.

Huge thanks to St Peter's Catholic Church and congregation for hosting such a wonderful event!

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