(ANS - Ulaan Baatar) - Today we begin a series of three publications that, thanks to the testimony of some of those who were principal actors in it, present the Salesian situation in Mongolia.

In 1998 the Salesians of South Korea received an invitation from the Apostolic Nuncio of Mongolia – whose area also included the Nunciature South Korea and the Missio Sui Iuris of Ulaan Baatar, headed at the time by Mgr Wenceslas Padilla, CICM, - to take charge of a mission in the country.

Thus the then Provincial of South Korea, Fr Václav Klement, made an exploratory visit, followed later by the Councillor for the Missions, Fr Luciano Odorico. At the end of these visits it was determined that South Korea could not accept the proposal, as it was already engaged in a new missionary front; but the project was forwarded to the Salesians in Vietnam. Fr John Nguyen Van Ty, Superior of the then Salesian Vice Province, and the other members of his Council were favorable, and so the Rector Major, in 2000, approved the creation of the Salesian mission in Mongolia.

The first Salesian pioneers entered the country on 7 February 2001. There were six of them, from four different countries - Vietnam, South Korea, Slovakia and the Philippines - indicating the missionary efforts of the entire congregation at the dawn of the third millennium. Fr Carlos Villegas, a Filipino, was chosen as leader of the expedition and on 10 February he entered Ulaan Baatar with a very clear programme: to lay the foundations for a technical school - a commitment that had already been undertaken and accepted; to find and prepare a place to accommodate the other pioneers who would come nine months later; and to start daily lessons in the Mongolian language immediately.

The Salesians thus became the second male order to make enter the country after the Scheut Missionaries - the Congregation of the Immaculate Heart of Mary, CICM - to which the Missio Sui Iuris had been entrusted immediately after the conclusion of the first agreements between Mongolia and the Vatican in 1992.

The first Salesian work to be erected was a higher technical school recognised by the government. It began in 2001 with 30 students. Today, it serves about 300 each year, with five technical areas: car mechanics, tailoring, secretarial services, welding and building, all courses that include the study of computer skills. The second work undertaken was an orphanage for 20 children. In these centres the Salesians, respecting Mongolian law, have never taught religion.

In 2005, Darkhan, about 220 km north of the capital, was erected as the second presence, first as a youth centre, which became, in 2007, a parish dedicated to Mary Help of Christians. From 2009 a small farm was added to the building. In Darkhan, always following Mongolian legislation, since the work depends on the Catholic Church in Ulaan Baatar, the Salesians can instead freely provide church services and catechesis within their own premises.

"The Salesian Mission in Mongolia," says Father Villegas, "came under the aegis of Don Bosco's Madonna, our Helper. Because it was clear to us, in every regard, in our efforts to establish a Salesian presence, that the presence of Mary would have made its way into the hard Mongolian ground and would have gone ahead of us. We have witnessed many graces. And Don Bosco himself was already thinking of Mongolia in his projects, when in the Biographical Memoirs he speaks of the Tartars and their country."

"The day before entering Mongolia - continues Fr Villegas - I paused at Braga House, in Hong Kong, where I met the historic missionary Fr Mario Acquistapace, who was overjoyed to know the Salesians had finally arrived in Mongolia, given that that was always a dream cultivated by my confreres of the Chinese Province. And he gave me a holy picture which I still have, on which he had written: 'Mary will bless you'."

Published on 03/07/2013