One of the most interesting, but least publicized religious events of the year happens this weekend, starting today actually, when Pope Francis travels to Mongolia. The papal schedule is here.

I spent three weeks in Mongolia in 2019. While there, I got to meet a variety of Protestants and Buddhists (Buddhism is more than half the population), but never saw any sign of the Catholics.

The logical question: What are the news hooks for this visit? What should journalists be covering?

Let’s do some math. There are only 3 million people in the country and 41,000  60,000 of them (estimates vary) are Christian — the vast majority evangelical Protestant — after three decades of evangelizing.

When missionaries poured into the country in the early 90s, they had to start from ground up, as much of the  populace was atheist thanks to Communism. Catholic missionaries were among them and, today, there are 1,300-1,500 Catholics there, which is pretty low compared with the many Protestants. There are roughly 196 churches in the entire country, out of which eight — plus one chapel — are Catholic.

Even the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints claims more members (12,500) than that. See this Vatican overview for more on Mongolian Catholics.

There’s a lot of spiritual hunger there. When evangelist Franklin Graham (son of Billy) visited Mongolia last year, 17,000 showed up to hear him and 2,000 indicated conversions. I help support a Mongolian evangelist (her biography is here) who just completed a tour of the country and her sessions were packed (see this short video).

Evangelistically speaking, Mongolia is virgin territory, and everyone wants a cut of that pie. I am willing to bet that Francis’ new cardinal there unofficially told him the Protestants are making a lot of gains and he needs help. There are so many good stories in this trip, it’s hard to know where to start.

First, AP’s bare-bones intro:

VATICAN CITY — Pope Francis on Sunday described his visit later this week to Mongolia, the first-ever pilgrimage by a pontiff to the east Asian country, as a much-desired occasion to encounter a “noble, wise” people.

Speaking to the public in St. Peter’s Square, Francis said the trip would also be an opportunity to embrace the Catholic community there, describing the church in Mongolia as “small in numbers but lively in faith and great in charity.” The pilgrimage is also an opportunity “to meet up close with a noble, wise people,’' he said.

One of the most interesting personalities the pope will be with is Cardinal Giorgio Marengo, 49, the youngest red hat in the Catholic Church and an experienced hand, having spent 20 years in the country.

Marengo was made a cardinal last year and he is an Italian who’s also had 20 years experience as an exorcist. One Catholic publication I found quotes this  as saying that a lot of Mongolians need to be exorcised of evil spirits before they can be baptized as Catholics.

There is more than one good story here. Yes, shamanism is a thing in Mongolia and my Mongolian evangelist friend performed quite a few deliverances (from evil spirits) during her trip.

Agenzia Fides has put together a multi-part video series on the Catholic Church in Mongolia, part of which is with this piece. Click here for the other videos; hopefully you can get the English subtitles to work!

Tensions with China is also a good news angle. Much of what I’ve read is that Francis wants to send a signal to China, via his visit to its northern neighbor.

There’s no love lost between the two countries; the Great Wall of China was built to keep out the Mongols. And you can’t take a train between both countries unless you undergo a time-consuming switch of tracks because of different gauge sizes (Mongolia’s train system was built by the Russians). Last I heard, the Mongolians don’t want to change their tracks to jive with the Chinese because they don’t want to make it easy for the Chinese to invade them.

No pope, by the way, has ever visited Russia or China or until now, Mongolia. According to the National Catholic Reporter:

Mongolia will mark the 43rd international visit of Francis' decade-long papacy, during which he has intentionally bypassed major world capitals in favor of visiting places like Kazakhstan, Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates where Catholics are few in number. ..

During his three-night stay in Mongolia's capital of Ulaanbaatar, Francis is scheduled to meet with the country's political and civil authorities, interfaith leaders, the country's priests and religious men and women — some 75 missionaries — and to celebrate Mass in an indoor hockey arena for the country's small Catholic population, as well as those traveling from nearby Asian countries. 

The Diplomat ran a piece saying that the Mongolia trip isn’t about outreach to China at all, but more about strengthening Catholics during a time when Mongolia is in a spiritual and financial valley.

Judging from what I picked up four years ago, I’d say they are on the money.

In search of new opportunities, half of Mongolia’s population has migrated from ancestral homes to burgeoning urban centers. There, alcoholism and domestic violence became ubiquitous. Stepping into this complex social reality, Catholics opened a few kindergartens and launched support programs for women. …

Yet, 30 years later, vestiges of anti-religious feelings of the Soviet Era endure within administrative circles. Despite the commitment of Catholic organizations to social services, missionaries receive short-term visas only. Missionaries – some of whom have worked in Mongolia for 20 years, learned the language, and faced its winters – have to go abroad every three months without knowing whether they will be allowed to come back. Additionally, the government requests that for every single missionary visa, Catholic structures pay significant fees and employ a number of local citizens.

Be on the watch for good stories about a papal trip in which it will be hard not to find good angles for news coverage. Skip the articles about Mongolia having some of the world’s worst pollution and look for anything on how Francis is received by this nominally Buddhist populace. It’s definitely one of the more alien cultures he has visited.

Note also that Francis is flying over China, not Russia to get to Mongolia. Being that Russia poured a lot of money and time into Mongolia over the 70-year period that Mongolia was a Russian satellite, look for how they react to this trip.

FIRST PHOTO: Mongolians gathered in Sukhbataar Square in central Ulaanbaatar, by Julia Duin.