When in February 1922 Pope Pius XI decided to restructure the Apostolic Vicariate of Central Mongolia, he entrusted the administration of the Outer Mongolia mission to Scheut Missions - CICM (Congregatio Immaculati Cordis Mariae). Unfortunately, things did not move as planned, because Soviet troops invaded the country and the Mongolian People's Revolutionary Party was put in power. Thus, due to the invasion and the new situation especially regarding the change of the government, CICM was not able to enter Mongolia. In March 1992, however, a month after Mongolia's new constitution allowing freedom of religion was passed, the Holy See re-established Mongolia as mission "Sui Iuris" (in its own right). The following month, the decision to establish diplomatic relations between Mongolia and the Holy See on the level of a Nunciature was made public. Msgr. Giovanni Bulaitis, at that time the apostolic Nuncio for Korea, was appointed as the Nuncio for Mongolia, a post held at present by Most Rev. Emil-Paul Tscherrig. July 10, 1992 marked the start of Catholic Church presence in Mongolia with the arrival of the first three CICM Missionaries: Fathers Wenceslao Padilla and Gilbert Sales (both from the Philippines) and Robert Goessens (from Belgium). Faithful to their mission, despite the difficulties encountered, the first 3 members of the CICM team slowly made their way into Mongolian society through personal contacts. Very soon, they observed the many roving children in the streets of Ulaanbaatar and concluded that caring for these children would be one way of cooperating with the people of Mongolia, doing something about their social problems and thus giving the Christian message of love a concrete human face. Since then, the number of CICM missionaries working in Mongolia has increased substantially and was joined by many other missionaries, including religious Sisters.

 

Apostolic Prefecture of the Catholic Church Mission in Mongolia

Pastoral Commitments
Before the coming of the 3 CICM pioneers, no Church structure existed in the country. Some expatriate Catholics connected with embassies, international organizations, commerce and trade living in Mongolia had been attending protestant services. When the CICM team arrived, they started attending the Catholic Sunday liturgies. Then, after a while they started bringing with them some Mongolian friends. Bit by bit, local people started attending even the weekday liturgies. At present, the Catholic Church is slowly making its way into Mongolian society and the number of Mongolians who are interested in joining the Catholic fold is increasing.
At the start, English was the language used in church celebrations, because the Catholic community consisted mainly of expatriate Catholics, moreover, there were no existing liturgical texts in Mongolian - not even the sign of the cross - and the missionaries needed more time to understand and express themselves in Mongolian language. One of the first major challenges, therefore, was the difficult task of translation and adaptation of texts and songs for liturgical celebrations. As for now, the Catholic Church in Mongolia has a new face: a strong and effective group of foreigners and a dynamic community of Mongolians - some of them baptized, the majority not (yet). Meanwhile, this new situation brings along a new challenge since most of our Mongolian brothers and sisters do not speak English. As missionaries we are sent first of all to the Mongolian people, and Mongolians have the right to use their own language and culture in living and expressing their faith. Thus, Masses are now celebrated in Mongolian only or in a mixture of English and Mongolian. This is a way for us to show and pay our respect to the culture of the people to whom we are sent. CICM is in charge of two different parishes in Ulaanbaatar, while a Korean diocesan priest is in charge of a third parish community.

 

• Saints Peter and Paul Parish (SPP Parish), under the pastoral care of Fr. Serge Patrick Mondomobe (from Cameroon). Originally started as the only parish church in Ulaanbaatar, the SPP parish was transferred to a new site and is now the Cathedral church and part of a large compound. The church building comprises the priest house, a kindergarten, a clinic, a library for religious books, and meeting rooms where, among other activities, volunteers conduct English language classes. Today there are about 170 persons, including a number of English-speaking expatriates, who regularly come and participate in Sunday Mass celebration.

• The Good Shepherd Parish, under the care of Fr. Ronald Magbanua (from the Philippines), is a fairly new parish that started functioning in March 2003. Since then, the church population - people who somehow frequent meetings, classes, and celebrations - has grown from 8 to 156. The statistics can be broken as follows: 38 Children (6 to 12 years); 56 Juniors (13-17 years); 42 Youth (18-23 years) and 20 Adults (24-50 years). We celebrated seven baptisms on Easter 2006, and 15 catechumens are preparing for baptism on Easter 2007. It must be noted that is the Catholic Church policy in Mongolia not to baptize anyone younger than 16 (except children of Catholic parents). The present "church" is actually the first floor of a 2-story building, with a commercial bakery below in the basement and several families living on the floor above. That is why the parish has recently obtained land in view of eventually constructing a simple church building and facilities of its own. In the process of building a parish community of solid faith and formation for the people, also the social and special needs of the people must be addressed. Thus, besides catechism classes, parish activities also include two programs which are part of the overall CICM social outreach program.

 

Verbist Care Center in Mongolia
The Verbist Care Center aims to provide a home for vulnerable and runaway kids who roam the streets of Ulaanbaatar during the day and seek shelter and warmth at night in the rat-infested underground ducts of the hot-water system of the city. VCC wants to assure them a better future by sending them to kindergartens, primary, secondary schools and tertiary education. This will enable the children to gain full independence when they leave VCC after graduation. To attain this goal, VCC works together with existing agencies involved in the rehabilitation and development of street children in Mongolia. Every week, members of the VCC team continue to seek for children living in the manholes, bringing them hot food and basic medical supplies for minor ailments. Once a week, VCC also welcomes adult street people for hot meals, medical services, a hot shower and clothes. Social workers also try to locate and visit the children's family in order to see whether they could return home with their parents, which is often impossible because of alcoholism and dysfunctional family life. There are now some 125 street children living in VCC, from age 3 up to the late teens. Some 18 boys and girls who graduated from high school have started courses of higher education and live in a university dormitory together with other students, while keeping in close contact with the Center. Verbist Care Center continues to support the children in the technical schools and university by providing for their tuition fees, dormitory fees, food, clothing and daily allowances, until they graduate from their courses.

• My Home Kindergarten in Erdenet Erdenet, Mongolia's third-largest city with a population of 65,000, is situated at some 400 kilometers away from Ulaanbaatar, the capital city. The city expanded in the early seventies essentially depending on the copper industry. My Home Kindergarten is located in a shanty town area about 2 km from the city center. As in most of the Mongolian big cities and towns, special areas have been set aside for the purpose of accommodating migrants who flee from the countryside to the cities for better life opportunities. The resulting phenomenon is a large ger area at the city outskirts. Here, each household has a small fenced-in compound, allowing room for some livestock, with very simple facilities, without running water and very poor sanitation, no school nor recreation facilities. These ger areas have become centers of poverty, out of sight and easily forgotten in the development process. Here, starvation, alcoholism, home violence, and child abuse abound. Opened in December 2002 under the impulse of Father Gabriel Tshimanga (from DR. Congo), My Home Kindergarten aims to provide children from the ger area with a basic and good-quality education. My Home is set up in a simple, wooden, child-friendly environment wherein children learn all in one: basic education, moral education and self-sufficiency. Considering their background, children are encouraged to take initiative, to trust their skills and to rely on others, friends and teachers. My Home takes in consideration the learning rhythm of every child and follows the child's interest. Together with My Home Kindergarten is a growing Parents Association, intended to form the base for a community-building program. As parents take an interest in their children's education, they are encouraged to look at some other aspects of their lives: health care, basic hygiene, clean water, and civil education. Over time, this will eventually be the core from which it is hoped a Christian parish community may develop.

 

• Outreach Programs of the Good Shepherd Parish Alongside its catechetical apostolate, the parish of the Good Shepherd runs two social outreach programs: Skills Training Center, where young people gather and learn simple cottage-type activities like sewing, drawing and painting, carpentry, puppet making, music, etc. The challenge is to provide some training for the people so that they can be competent in their work and earn a simple living. Language Training Center, where youngsters can acquire basic language skills in English and, as of late 2006, also in Korean. Classes were first held in rented classrooms of a public school in the parish. Nowadays, for lack of funds, they are held in rooms in the church hall itself. The English language program has 3 levels, from beginners to advanced, with over 20 students. The Korean language program, conducted by a Korean Sister who has been involved in the parish as pastoral worker, started with 12 eager students.

 

• Women Issues and Alcoholism
Alcoholism is indeed a growing evil in Mongolian society. For different reasons, drinking has become mainly a way of escaping from the hardship of reality. Most heavy drinkers are men. They jeopardize family unity, not only by using their small earnings to buy alcohol but mainly by causing domestic violence after drinking. This often leads to involvement in robbery, assault, abusive behavior within the family or criminal conduct.
According to our latest findings, most street children have left home because their father or stepfather drinks and beats them. Many sex workers left home after being abused by alcoholic parents or partners and now use alcohol themselves to get through their own suffering.
Through Fr. Pierrot Kasemuana (DR. Congo), CICM aims at making people more aware of the realities of alcoholism and domestic violence and of their consequences in people's personal, family and social life. Through our commitment, we want to fight against any kind of abuse of the little ones; we want to protect especially the young from this sad experience and at the same time express our concern for the victims of alcoholism and domestic abuse, primarily youth and women.

• The Antoon Mostaert Center (AMC)

The program, started in 2002 as a Mostaert Desk, is expected to gradually develop into an elaborate Mongolian Studies Research Center and is part of the Research Department of the Verbiest Foundation of the CICM Sino-Mongol Province of CICM. First of all at the service of the local Catholic Church, AMC seeks to promote Mongolian studies through research, publications, and regular conferences in collaboration with other Mongolian Studies Institutes and individual researchers. AMC is an instrument at the service of the local Church in matter regarding inculturation (faith and culture). Through in-depth study of some aspects of Mongolian culture and their relatedness to the Christian Gospel, it aims at helping missionaries in their work of evangelization of the Mongols. AMC also wants to promote a better (positive) understanding of Christianity among the Mongols through conferences, publications, book distribution, book translation and a specialized library.

 

 

Ferdinand Verbiest Foundation
Finally, AMC want to keep up the legacy of the CICM Mongolists (A. Mostaert and others) by promoting research on Mongolian culture and history and collaborating with Mongolian Study Institutes
• Apostlic Prefecture of the Catholic Church Mission in Mongolia

FATHER ANTOINE MOSTAERT , cicm was missionary to China for 42 years. He was born in Brugge, Belgium, in 1881, and joined CICM in 1899. At age 19 he began reading Schmidt's Grammatik der Mongolischen Sprache . It was during this period that his passion for Mongolia grew and flourished. After his ordination in 1905, Fr Mostaert, was assigned to what was later to become the diocese of Ningxia. A year later, the bishop sent him to the Mongol station of Boro-Balghasu (also called Poro Balgason), a place where he remained for 20 years. He became fascinated by every thing Mongol: language, history, customs. Nothing escaped his interest. He started compiling word lists and collecting texts and documents in Mongol. He discovered some Xi-Xia seals and Medieval Nestorian medals which he later donated to Fu-Jen University in Beijing. The Mongols, from their side, were impressed by his eloquence and understanding of their language and culture. They were awed in every way by this extraordinary foreigner who showed them so much sympathy.

In 1926, Fr Mostaert left for Beijing. He published a series of books and articles. Of special mention is the Dictionnaire Monguor-Francais (in collaboration with Fr Albert De Smedt, cicm) and the Dictionnaire ordos , published during the war years. In 1943, through the intervention of the President of Fu-Jen University, Fr Mostaert escaped being rounded up by the Japanese occupation. Thus he was able to continue his work undisturbed until internal political events forced him to leave Beijing in the fall of 1948. He wept when he left his beloved mission country and boarded the ship at Tianjin.

In 1949 he took up residence in Arlington, Virginia, USA, until his retirement at 84 when failing eyesight made it impossible for him to continue his scholarly work. Reluctantly he returned to his home country, Belgium, but was gratified in his old age to see the second edition of Ordos dictionary and the publication of his last book, Manual of Mongolia Astronomy and Divination (Scripta Mongolica IV), Cambridge, Mass, 1969.

Fr Mostaert died in 1971 at age 89. His scholarly work and contributions earned him many recognitions. Fr Mostaert is being remembered as a CICM missionary who obeyed and heard the call of the Lord to proclaim the Good News in a foreign land with deep interest for the culture of people. His life and work remain an inspiration for missionaries and scholars to walk along the same path and combine tedious scientific research and genuine love for the common people.

Source: www.missionhurst.org