World

Recovering pope will go to Mongolia, Vatican confirms

2023.07.06 08:45


© Reuters. FILE PHOTO: Pope Francis looks on as he holds the weekly general audience in St. Peter’s Square at the Vatican, May 31, 2023. REUTERS/Guglielmo Mangiapane/File Photo

By Philip Pullella

VATICAN CITY (Reuters) – Pope Francis will travel to Mongolia at the end of August, the Vatican confirmed on Thursday, indicating that his health is improving well enough after surgery to be able to go to the remotest area he has ever visited.

The Vatican issued a detailed schedule for the Aug. 31-Sept. 4 trip, a sign that the visit could now be called off only for extreme reasons.

Francis, 86, who spent nine days in hospital after surgery for an abdominal hernia last month, is due to visit Portugal from Aug. 2 to 4. He is resting for the month of July, the Vatican’s customary holiday month.

Francis will spend all of his time in Mongolia in Ulaanbaatar, capital of the vast country with only about 1,300 Catholics, fewer than most parish churches in many places.

To allow him to rest after a night flight of more than nine hours and 8,278 km (5,144 miles) he will have no public activities on the first day apart from a brief official welcome at the airport named after Genghis Khan, who founded the Mongol Empire in the 13th century.

During the trip he will meet with authorities, diplomats, bishops, priests, missionaries, members of others religions and also say a Mass for the tiny Catholic community in the Steppe Arena, an indoor ice hockey rink.

The country of about 3.3 million people is strategically significant for the Roman Catholic Church because of its proximity to China, where the Vatican is trying to improve the situation of Catholics.

Mongolia, which was part of China until 1921, has good relations with Beijing and diplomats say it could be used as an intermediary with China.

Last year, Francis named Archbishop Giorgio Marengo, an Italian, the first cardinal to be based in Mongolia, where he is the Catholic Church’s administrator.

Visiting places where Catholics are a minority is part of Francis’ policy of drawing attention to people and problems in what he has called the peripheries of society and of the world.

He still has not visited most of the capitals of Western Europe.

According to the U.S. State Department, about 60% of Mongolians identify as religious. Among those, 87.1% are Buddhist, 5.4% Muslim, 4.2% Shamanist, 2.2% Christian and 1.1% followers of other religions.

Source link

Related Articles

Back to top button
bitcoin
Bitcoin (BTC) $ 68,817.44 0.25%
ethereum
Ethereum (ETH) $ 2,437.22 0.87%
tether
Tether (USDT) $ 1.00 0.05%
bnb
BNB (BNB) $ 559.86 0.16%
solana
Solana (SOL) $ 161.91 0.32%
usd-coin
USDC (USDC) $ 1.00 0.00%
xrp
XRP (XRP) $ 0.514268 1.98%
dogecoin
Dogecoin (DOGE) $ 0.168334 11.60%
staked-ether
Lido Staked Ether (STETH) $ 2,436.38 0.90%
tron
TRON (TRX) $ 0.162269 1.63%
cardano
Cardano (ADA) $ 0.330772 0.00%
the-open-network
Toncoin (TON) $ 4.60 5.07%
shiba-inu
Shiba Inu (SHIB) $ 0.000018 4.87%
wrapped-steth
Wrapped stETH (WSTETH) $ 2,870.61 1.55%
wrapped-bitcoin
Wrapped Bitcoin (WBTC) $ 68,642.39 0.12%
avalanche-2
Avalanche (AVAX) $ 23.16 1.45%
weth
WETH (WETH) $ 2,436.55 0.90%
bitcoin-cash
Bitcoin Cash (BCH) $ 338.14 1.30%
chainlink
Chainlink (LINK) $ 10.49 1.41%
leo-token
LEO Token (LEO) $ 6.07 0.50%
usds
USDS (USDS) $ 0.992955 0.78%
polkadot
Polkadot (DOT) $ 3.82 1.33%
sui
Sui (SUI) $ 1.92 2.67%
litecoin
Litecoin (LTC) $ 66.98 0.90%
near
NEAR Protocol (NEAR) $ 3.69 1.77%
wrapped-eeth
Wrapped eETH (WEETH) $ 2,552.87 1.26%
aptos
Aptos (APT) $ 8.19 0.75%
uniswap
Uniswap (UNI) $ 6.93 0.49%
pepe
Pepe (PEPE) $ 0.000008 0.45%
internet-computer
Internet Computer (ICP) $ 7.13 0.49%
dai
Dai (DAI) $ 0.999737 0.04%
bittensor
Bittensor (TAO) $ 427.96 0.17%
fetch-ai
Artificial Superintelligence Alliance (FET) $ 1.15 1.99%
monero
Monero (XMR) $ 159.59 1.23%
ethena-usde
Ethena USDe (USDE) $ 1.00 0.10%
stellar
Stellar (XLM) $ 0.092232 1.57%
whitebit
WhiteBIT Coin (WBT) $ 18.94 0.26%
ethereum-classic
Ethereum Classic (ETC) $ 17.93 1.37%
kaspa
Kaspa (KAS) $ 0.105965 3.02%
first-digital-usd
First Digital USD (FDUSD) $ 0.999836 0.37%
polygon-ecosystem-token
POL (ex-MATIC) (POL) $ 0.297317 0.73%
blockstack
Stacks (STX) $ 1.51 3.85%
okb
OKB (OKB) $ 37.44 0.28%
dogwifcoin
dogwifhat (WIF) $ 2.04 0.91%
filecoin
Filecoin (FIL) $ 3.34 0.07%
aave
Aave (AAVE) $ 130.61 0.51%
crypto-com-chain
Cronos (CRO) $ 0.071627 0.49%
arbitrum
Arbitrum (ARB) $ 0.480762 0.03%
mantle
Mantle (MNT) $ 0.556333 0.42%
immutable-x
Immutable (IMX) $ 1.08 0.81%