Mongolia – Shuwuu parishioners grateful for new church

23 October 2020

(ANS - Shuwuu) - Since 2016, the Catholic Prefecture of Mongolia has entrusted the Salesians of the Mongolian Delegation with a rural town called Shuwuu, about 40 km from the capital Ulanbaatar. Previously, from the earliest days of the Catholic mission, Shuwuu had been entrusted to the Missionary Sisters of the Immaculate Heart of Mary; it featured a social work, a kindergarten and a space devoted to agriculture. Then, the late Bishop Venceslao Padilla, who passed away in 2018, entrusted this promising community to the Salesians.

During the last 4 years, this small Catholic community has slowly grown thanks to the care of two Salesians, Fr Mário Gaspar dos Santos, a Timorese missionary, and Fr Jaroslav Vracovský, a missionary from the Czech Republic. In recent years, 76 parishioners have committed, even with difficulty, to finding and creating an adequate place of worship, since the local population could not afford to build it with their own means. Now, finally, they have a new church at their disposal.

The parish is not just a place of prayer or catechesis: there is also an oratory for local children and young people. Also, for the local population, the Catholic community of Shuwuu offers drinking water and shower facilities. The parish of Shuwuu is thus open and at the service of the area's entire population.

The best expression of gratitude for this new church, now almost complete, comes from one of the parish's oldest members: “My God, I'm praising you for our new beautiful Church. Soon our bishop will arrive and bless it and it will become a real Church, where we will listen to the Word of God, learn from Him, spread it around the world.”

On behalf of all the confreres, Fr Paul Leung, Delegate for Mongolia, expressed his gratitude to all the benefactors. “Dear friends, that our new Church construction is finishing and we are grateful to all donors and believe that also in the future you will support us as you did from the beginning. May God bless you all!,” he wrote. The parishioners, now praying for new missionaries to arrive in Mongolia, were also pleased and grateful.

Meanwhile, the Salesians and all the Catholics of Mongolia expressed their joy at the arrival in the country of Msgr. Giorgio Marengo, Italian bishop and missionary appointed last April by Pope Francis as apostolic prefect of Ulanbaatar.

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