Francis became the first pope to visit Mongolia
Pope Francis is in Mongolia these days on a visit that began on Friday, September 1. The pontiff, who arrived in Ulaanbaatar, was met by Mongolian Foreign Minister Batmunkhin Battsetseg with a guard of honor, AFP news agency reported.
After the reception at the airport, Francis met with the Mongolian cardinal of Italian origin, Giorgio Marengo. Francis became the first head of the Roman Catholic Church to visit Mongolia. Most of the inhabitants of this country profess Buddhism, and about 1,400 people consider themselves Catholics. The Mongolian community is one of the smallest in the world, with 25 Catholic priests and 33 nuns serving in the country, AFP writes.
The pontiff's visit will last until Monday, September 4. As part of the trip, President of Mongolia Ukhnaagiin Khurelsukh and Prime Minister Oyuun-Erdene Luvsannamsrai will meet with Francis.
Francis' visit to Mongolia will, in a way, complete the mission launched by 13th-century Pope Innocent IV, who sent emissaries east to ascertain the intentions of the rapidly expanding Mongol Empire, the Associated Press commented.
According to the texts of the surviving letters, these medieval negotiations between the pope and the Mongol khan were full of militant demands for submission and conversion, with each side claiming to act in the name of God. But these exchanges also showed mutual respect at a time when the Catholic Church was leading the Crusades and the Mongol Empire was conquering lands as far west as Hungary, becoming the largest land empire in world history.
About 800 years later, Francis' trip to Ulaanbaatar is a historic meeting of East and West, the first ever visit by a Roman pontiff to Mongolia to minister to one of the smallest and newest Catholic communities in the world.
Mongolian Buddhists, representatives of Judaism, Muslims and Shintoists, as well as members of Christian churches who have settled in Mongolia, are invited to Sunday's interfaith meeting.
In a letter to the Mongols prior to his visit, Francis emphasized their interfaith traditions and said he was traveling to the "heart of Asia" as a brother to all.
As the Pope's plane flew over China en route to Mongolia, Francis sent a message of greetings to Chinese President Xi Jinping. Beijing responded by saying it would like to build "mutual trust" with the Vatican. "China is ready to further cooperate with the Vatican, engage in constructive dialogue and improve mutual understanding," Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin said.
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