For Sister Tireza Gabriel Usamo, a 38-year-old Catholic nun from Ethiopia in Africa, the climate and customs of Mongolia have been a constant challenge ever since she went there as a missionary. She is part of a three-member team of nuns from Consolata Missionaries working in Arvaikheer town in central Mongolia. The Church in Mongolia was re-established when three Immaculate Heart of Mary missionaries arrived there in 1992, a year after democracy was restored after the fall of communism. The Catholic Church was active in Mongolia in the 13th century but its role was ended by the Yuan Dynasty in 1368. Christianity was then for-bidden in a country sandwiched between China and Russia.
As the Church marks 30 years of its reincarnation in 2022, it has two Mongol priests, 22 foreign missionaries and about 35 missionary nuns including Sister Usamo. They work for some 1,400 Catholics under the Ulaanbaatar Apostolic Prefecture, which covers the entire country of some 3.3 million people. Ulaanbaatar’s Italian Bishop Giorgio Marengo is among 21 bishops that Pope Francis will make cardinals in a consistory in August. Bishop Marengo, also a Consolata missionary, met the pope in May with a team of Buddhists in an effort to promote interfaith collaboration in Mon-golia.