As the 1st Pope in History to Visit Mongolia - Pope Francis Arrives Safely and Eats some of the Ceremonial Curd! VIDEO

Pope Francis arrived in Mongolia‘s capital, Ulaanbaatar, on September 1st, starting his 43 international Apostolic Journey that ends on the 4th of September.
An ITA Airways flight carried Pope Francis to Mongolia, a “land of silence”. He spoke to journalists on board the plane after take-off on Thursday evening.

The Pope received a welcome ceremony at Ulaanbaatar‘s international Chinggis Khaan airport by Monsignor Fernando Duarte Barros Reis, Chargé d‘affaires at Mongolia‘s Apostolic Nunciature, and by the Ambassador of Mongolia to the Holy See, Ms Davaasuren Gerelmaa, and then by Church and government delegations, awaiting him on the tarmac.
The Mongolian State Honour Guard held rank in their red, blue and yellow uniforms and iron helmets.
During a brief welcome ceremony at the airport, a young Mongolian woman in traditional dress offered the Pope a cup containing “Aaruul“ - boiled yoghurt (curd) – made from the milk of cattle, yaks and camels, and symbolizing the nomadic culture of the Mongolian people.
Pope Francis graciously received the cup and ate some curd.

At age 86, the Pope is scheduled to rest on Friday after the long flight. His official meetings and events begin on Saturday morning.
As is customary in his Apostolic Journeys, on his way to the Mongolian capital, Ulaanbaatar, Pope Francis wired greetings to the leaders of each country he flew over, including President Xi Jinping of the People’s Republic of China.

In his message, the Pope said: "I send greetings of good wishes to Your Excellency and the people of China as I pass through your country's airspace en route to Mongolia. Assuring you of my prayers for the wellbeing of the nation, I invoke upon all of you the divine blessings of unity and peace."

On Friday, a spokesperson for China's Foreign Ministry, Wang Wenbin, said the Pope's blessing reflected “friendliness and goodwill”, noting that China and the Holy See had maintained contacts in recent years.

"China is willing to continue to walk in the same direction with the Vatican, conduct constructive dialogues, enhance understanding, accumulate mutual trust, and promote the process of improving the relationship of the two sides," Mr. Wang said.

Pope Francis also sent telegrams to the leaders of Italy, Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Serbia, Montenegro, Bulgaria, Türkiye, Georgia, Azerbaijan, and Kazakhstan, which he visited in on 13-15 September 2022 to attend the 7th Congress of Leaders of World and Traditional Religions.


The East Asian nation the Pope has chosen to visit during his 43rd Apostolic Journey abroad, is the second largest landlocked country in the world (after Kazakstan). Its traditionally nomadic population, has about 3.5 million people; less than 2 percent are Christians.
After 70 years of communist regime, a satellite nation of the USSR, Mongolia underwent a peaceful revolution in 1990 and established a multi-party democracy. It adopted a new Constitution that guarantees religious freedom.
That’s when the Catholic missionaries who had been exiled during the years of communism came back into the country with the task of rebuilding the Church from scratch. Today there are no more than 8 parishes and about 1,500 baptized Catholics.

The young Church is headed by the College of Cardinals’ youngest Cardinal, Giorgio Marengo, whom Pope Francis elevated to Cardinal during the Consistory in August 2022.

 Mongolia proudly upholds its “nuclear-weapon-free status”. In 2022, Mongolia celebrated the 30th anniversary of the status with a regional round-table gathering scholars and experts in Ulaanbaatar to discuss the importance, challenges and prospects of Nuclear-Weapon-Free Zones (NWFZ) development.

Source VaticanNews