Pope Francis arrived in Mongolia on Friday, beginning the first papal visit to the vast Asian nation landlocked between China
The 86-year-old pontiff’s trip through Monday to the Buddhist-majority nation is a gesture of support for the tiny community of Catholics numbering about 1,400.
Asked by a journalist whether he found diplomacy difficult, the pope answered: “Yes, you don’t know how difficult it is.The nine-hour flight passed over Chinese airspace and the pontiff, following custom, sent a telegram to President Xi Jinping, bearing “greetings of good wishes” to him and the Chinese people.
“This is a clear effort of the Holy See to take care of Central Asia and not abandon it to Russia or China,” Michel Chambon, a scholar of Catholicism in Asia, told AFP. He will meet the Catholic community — which includes just 25 priests and 33 nuns, only two of them Mongolian — later Saturday in Saints Peter and Paul Cathedral. Its circular nave resembles a “ger”, the Mongolian nomads’ traditional tent dwelling.
That makes Mongolia potentially helpful for Vatican relations with both Beijing and Moscow. The Holy See last year renewed a deal on the thorny issue of bishop appointments with China, and Francis has sought to broker an end to the war in Ukraine with Russia.
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