Pope asks for prayers for trip to Mongolia

VATICAN CITY (CNS) — Pope Francis has asked people to accompany him “to the heart of Asia,” Mongolia, with their prayers.

The pope is due to take an overnight flight to Ulaanbaatar, the country’s capital, on August 31, where he will arrive on September 1 and stay there until September 4, visiting a Catholic community of just around 1,450 people.

Addressing some 10,000 people gathered in St. Peter’s Square on August 27 for the recitation of the Angelus, Pope Francis said it was a “much-desired visit, which will be the occasion to embrace a small but vibrant church. in faith and great in charity.

This visit, he said, will also be an opportunity to meet “a noble, wise people, with a strong religious tradition, whom I will have the honor of knowing, especially in the context of an interreligious event”. . Mongolia has about 3.3 million inhabitants, almost half of whom are Buddhists.

Pope Francis said he would visit the country as a “brother of all”.

The pope also used the appointment at the Angelus to express his prayers for the Greek people facing severe forest fires and to ask to continue praying for peace in Ukraine.

And he pointed out that August 27 is the feast of Saint Monica, mother of Saint Augustine, who “with her prayers and her tears” asked the Lord for the conversion of her son.

She was “a strong woman, a good woman,” the pope said. “Let us pray for the many mothers who suffer when their children are a little lost or find themselves on difficult paths in life. »

Copyright © 2023 Catholic News Service/American Conference of Catholic Bishops

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