austraLasia 1528
Easter Growth Part II: Mongolia has 25% increase in Catholics!
ULAAN BAATAR: 16th April 2005 -- Our homilist at Mass this Easter morning quoted a figure of 80,000 new Catholics in the United States as of last night. No doubt he has checked and given us an accurate figure - it sounds impressive enough, but it is a figure one must put against 68 million existing Catholics, and we also do not know how many of these new ones were infants.
The one and only Bishop in Mongolia, Bishop Wenceslaw Padilla, pointed out this week in a 'Fides' item (published only in Italian), that 70 catechumens were ready for Baptism last night, Easter Vigil, across the three parishes that now exist in Mongolia. Given that there are just 300 Catholics already in the country, that makes it an almost 25% increase. Bishop Padilla also tells us that most of these new baptisms are amongst the 16-20 year old group. That is even more impressive, knowing they would have been well prepared!
A number of these new catechumens have been prepared by our own Salesians - especially in Darkhan where the work is barely a year old and an entirely new presence of the Church. Sensibly, they decided that younger catechumens would need at least two years preparation, so they were preparing 14 older candidates (between age 30-65) for baptism last night. This effectively makes up the first Church in that city in the North of the country. We don't have the Salesian figures for catechumens prepared in Ulaan Bataar, but almost certainly these will include younger catechumens, since the Salesian work has been established longer in the capital city. Think that in 1991 there were fewer than 50 Christians (that's all denominations) in Mongolia. But another sobering thought is that today there are about 10,000 Christians in Mongolia. Our Catholic community has some catching up to do, obviously!
There are now a total of 18 priests and 40 sisters in Mongolia, and 9 Religious Congregations. We know, too, that the Salesian Sisters have made formal moves to establish a community in Ulaan Bataar in 2007. Interestingly enough, whereas the SDB presence is an extension of the Vietnamese province (though it involves Salesians from many parts of the world other than Vietnam), the FMA presence will belong juridically to their Korean Province and will be a missionary gesture recognising 50 years of FMA presence in Korea in 2007.
Do you want to comment on this article? Add further information? Or begin a conversation in another area of your choice? Then click on BoscoWiki and go to it! Join the EAO conversation, which has already begun this Easter! But don't forget to 'save' your comment - some readers have commented, then lost what they wrote because they forgot to save.
___________________
AustraLasia is an email service for the Salesian Family of Asia Pacific. It also functions as an agency for ANS based in Rome. For queries please contact admin@bosconet.aust.com For RSS feeds, subscribe to www.bosconet.aust.com/RSS/rssala.xml
Easter Growth Part II: Mongolia has 25% increase in Catholics!
ULAAN BAATAR: 16th April 2005 -- Our homilist at Mass this Easter morning quoted a figure of 80,000 new Catholics in the United States as of last night. No doubt he has checked and given us an accurate figure - it sounds impressive enough, but it is a figure one must put against 68 million existing Catholics, and we also do not know how many of these new ones were infants.
The one and only Bishop in Mongolia, Bishop Wenceslaw Padilla, pointed out this week in a 'Fides' item (published only in Italian), that 70 catechumens were ready for Baptism last night, Easter Vigil, across the three parishes that now exist in Mongolia. Given that there are just 300 Catholics already in the country, that makes it an almost 25% increase. Bishop Padilla also tells us that most of these new baptisms are amongst the 16-20 year old group. That is even more impressive, knowing they would have been well prepared!
A number of these new catechumens have been prepared by our own Salesians - especially in Darkhan where the work is barely a year old and an entirely new presence of the Church. Sensibly, they decided that younger catechumens would need at least two years preparation, so they were preparing 14 older candidates (between age 30-65) for baptism last night. This effectively makes up the first Church in that city in the North of the country. We don't have the Salesian figures for catechumens prepared in Ulaan Bataar, but almost certainly these will include younger catechumens, since the Salesian work has been established longer in the capital city. Think that in 1991 there were fewer than 50 Christians (that's all denominations) in Mongolia. But another sobering thought is that today there are about 10,000 Christians in Mongolia. Our Catholic community has some catching up to do, obviously!
There are now a total of 18 priests and 40 sisters in Mongolia, and 9 Religious Congregations. We know, too, that the Salesian Sisters have made formal moves to establish a community in Ulaan Bataar in 2007. Interestingly enough, whereas the SDB presence is an extension of the Vietnamese province (though it involves Salesians from many parts of the world other than Vietnam), the FMA presence will belong juridically to their Korean Province and will be a missionary gesture recognising 50 years of FMA presence in Korea in 2007.
Do you want to comment on this article? Add further information? Or begin a conversation in another area of your choice? Then click on BoscoWiki and go to it! Join the EAO conversation, which has already begun this Easter! But don't forget to 'save' your comment - some readers have commented, then lost what they wrote because they forgot to save.
___________________
AustraLasia is an email service for the Salesian Family of Asia Pacific. It also functions as an agency for ANS based in Rome. For queries please contact admin@bosconet.aust.com For RSS feeds, subscribe to www.bosconet.aust.com/RSS/rssala.xml
