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In Mongolia, Pope says Church 'has no political agenda'

September 2, 2023

Pope Francis is on the first-ever papal visit to the country on China and Russia's doorstep, where he said governments shouldn't fear the Church's work.

https://p.dw.com/p/4VsV7
Mongolian President Ukhnaagin Khurelsukh, left, and Pope Francis, Saturday, Sept. 2, 2023, wave in front of a gigantic statue of the former Khagan of the Mongol Empire Genghis Khan in Sukhbaatar Square in Ulaanbaatar
Pope Francis praised Mongolia's promotion of peace and religious freedom in an address to government and civil society representativesImage: Andrew Medichini/AP/picture alliance

Pope Francis on Saturday opened the first papal visit to Mongolia, home to some 1,450 Catholics. 

Speaking to bishops, priests and pastoral workers, the pope said Jesus gave no political mandate to his apostles but told them to alleviate the sufferings of a "wounded humanity" through faith — in an apparent message to Beijing. 

"For this reason, governments and secular institutions have nothing to fear from the Church's work of evangelization," Francis said in the Asian nation located between China and Russia.

The Church "has no political agenda to advance, but is sustained by the quiet power of God's grace and a message of mercy and truth, which is meant to promote the good of all," he added.

Pope Francis celebrates Catholics in Buddhist Mongolia

According to media reports, Chinese Catholics were flocking to Mongolia's capital, Ulaanbaatar, to see the pope.

Upon Francis' arrival on Friday, Beijing said it hoped to "strengthen mutual trust" with the Vatican after the pope sent a greeting message to President Xi Jinping. 

Pope praises Mongolia's religious freedom

The 86-year-old pope was welcomed in an official ceremony by Mongolia's President Ukhnaa Khurelsukh, with a phalanx of Mongolian horsemen in metal armor parading past the State Palace.  

Mongolian President Ukhnaagin Khurelsukh, right, claps his hands at Pope Francis signing the honor book at the State Palace
Francis is in Mongolia to minister to one of the world's newest and smallest Catholic communities Image: Remo Casilli/AP Photo/picture alliance

Francis praised Mongolia's tradition of religious freedom dating to the times of its founder, Genghis Khan.

"The fact that the empire could embrace such distant and varied lands over the centuries bears witness to the remarkable ability of your ancestors to acknowledge the outstanding qualities of the peoples present in its immense territory and to put those qualities at the service of a common development," Francis said at the ceremony.

"This model should be valued and re-proposed in our own day," he added.

Francis called for fraternity and peace as there was in the 13th-century period of relative political stability within the Mongol Empire.  

"May heaven grant that today, on this earth devastated by countless conflicts, there be a renewal, respectful of international laws, of the condition of what was once the pax mongolica, that is the absence of conflicts," he said.

fb/lo (AFP, AP, Reuters)