Mongolian President Tsakhiagiin Elbegdorj walks past Republican Guards as he arrives before his meeting with French President Francois Hollande at the Elysee Palace on Nov. 19, 2015, in Paris. / Credit: Chesnot/Getty Images Denver, Colo., Aug 30, 2023 / 11:45 am (CNA). Mongolia, which Pope Francis is visiting this week, is a nation where religious freedom and respect for human life are “fundamental” values, the country’s former president said.Tsakhiagiin Elbegdorj, Mongolia's president from 2009 to 2017, spoke about those values earlier this year in an interview with “EWTN News Nightly.”“Throughout our history, Mongols were very respectful for religious beliefs,” he said.Elbegdorj explained that during the Mongolian empire, all those who worked in church temples were exempt from military service and from paying taxes to show respect to those religious people.In October 2011, Elbegdorj met with Pope Benedict XVI during a visit to the Vatican. “Our meeting was very warm,” he recalled. “I recall that was really one of the best meetings I had and we talked about our history, also including the religious history, and the pope was actually very much interested.”He shared that Benedict XVI’s “humanity and his love of humanity and his passion to serve in the best interest of humanity” will be the late pope’s lasting legacy. The former prime minister also met Pope Francis during a meeting with the International Commission Against Death Penalty, of which Elbegdorj is the commissioner. “We know that Pope Francis has a great attitude towards respecting and campaigning for life and also campaigning against the death penalty,” he said. “We talked about how important it is to advocate for life and how important it is to abolish the death penalty.”Elbegdorj explained that he was one of the people who helped to establish a nongovernmental organization in Mongolia against the communist regime in the late 1980s. This coincided with the fall of the Berlin Wall and the Tiananmen Square massacre. You can watch his interview in the video below.

This picture taken on Jan. 16, 2022, shows a man watching smoke hanging over houses on a polluted day in Ulaanbaatar, the capital of Mongolia. / Credit: Byambasuren Byamba-Ochir/AFP via Getty Images Rome Newsroom, Aug 28, 2023 / 01:00 am (CNA). While thoughts of Mongolia can conjure up images of nomadic peoples traversing wide-open steppes on horseback, the country’s more densely-populated capital has the ignominious reputation of being among the most polluted capital cities in the world, especially in winter.Pope Francis is set to land in the Mongolian capital of Ulaanbaatar on Sept. 1, which is the Church’s World Day of Prayer for Creation, a day the pope established in 2015 after publishing his landmark environmental encyclical Laudato Si’.As the pope recently revealed that he is writing a second part to Laudato Si’ that will address “recent environmental crises,” Francis is likely to make “care for our common home” a key theme of his Mongolian trip from Aug. 31 to Sept. 4.The Mongolian capital’s air quality grew so toxic in 2018 that a United Nations agency issued a report deeming it a “child health crisis.” Measurements of fine particles in the air that can be absorbed from the respiratory tract into the bloodstream called PM2.5 found the level to be 133 times what the World Health Organization considers safe. The polluted air is caused in part by settlements that encircle the city in what is called the Ger District, where poor families burn black market raw coal as well as tires, plastic bottles, and other waste in their dwellings, called yurts, to keep warm in the cold winters. Four large coal plants in Ulaanbaatar also add to the pollution.“Air pollution has become a child health crisis in Ulaanbaatar, putting every child and pregnancy at risk,” according to the UNICEF report.This aerial picture taken on Jan. 16, 2022, shows smoke hanging over houses on a polluted day in Ulaanbaatar, the capital of Mongolia. Credit: Byambasuren Byamba-Ochir/AFP via Getty ImagesThe U.N. agency also reported that the city’s smog was so toxic that Mongolian children living in a highly polluted district of Ulaanbaatar had 40% lower lung function than children living in the countryside. A study at a Mongolian hospital found that seasonal air pollutants correlated strongly with a 3.6-fold increased rate of miscarriage in the capital. In response to public health consequences, the Mongolian government banned raw coal consumption in 2019, but the city is still dealing with the fallout of ongoing air pollution. Mongolia is also set apart by its rich mineral resources, including uranium, copper, gold, and other rare earth reserves. Many foreign countries, including Japan, the U.S., and China, have mining ventures in Mongolia. Pope Francis could also highlight this issue, as he did in his trip to the Democratic Republic of Congo earlier this year where he made headlines by calling out exploitative mining, saying: “Hands off Africa!”Pope Francis is reportedly planning to release the new updated version of Laudato Si’ on the feast of St. Francis of Assisi on Oct. 4, according to Hungarian

Father Isaac Honsan, pastor of St. Paul's Church, stands in the rubble after the church was set on fire in a recent attack. / Photo credit: Anto Akkara Indore, India, Aug 16, 2023 / 13:30 pm (CNA). As India celebrated its 77th Independence Day marking freedom from colonial British rule on Aug. 15, the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of India (CBCI) asserted the patriotism of Christians and called for “resolving internal challenges with empathy, understanding, and unity.”“India’s journey to freedom was not solely forged on the battlefield but also through unwavering determination, sacrifices, and visionary leadership from those of diverse backgrounds, including the Christian community,” the CBCI said in a press release.Though British imperialism spread in India when the East India Company began trading there in the 17th century, the British Parliament took total control over the Indian subcontinent in 1858.Following the massive freedom struggle led by Mahatma Gandhi — the prophet of nonviolence — the British ended their rule over the Indian subcontinent in August 1947, dividing it into Hindu-majority India and Muslim-majority Pakistan.Hindu nationalist outlets, under the influence of the ruling BJP (the Bharatiya Janata Party, one of the two major Indian political parties alongside the Indian National Congress), have called into question the patriotism of India’s 34 million Christians. The CBCI statement addressed the charge, saying: “Christian freedom fighters left an indelible mark on India’s history. Their dedication and sacrifices serve as a poignant reminder that the fight for freedom was a collective endeavor that transcended religious and cultural boundaries.”“Our nation’s strength is derived from its ability to confront and resolve internal challenges with empathy, understanding, and unity. The diverse fabric of our country is a source of strength, but it also requires ongoing efforts to ensure that every citizen’s rights and aspirations are respected and protected,” the bishops stated.Violence in Manipur In an apparent criticism of the 105-day-old bloody ethnic conflict in the northeastern state of Manipur — in which ethnic Christian Kuki tribes have been targeted — the CBCI further called for “meaningful dialogue seeking solutions that prioritize the well-being and future of all the citizens, especially those who are suffering and feel abandoned due to conflicts, sentiments of hatred, and acts of violence.”The tiny state of Manipur, with a population of 3.7 million, has been engulfed in a violent conflict between ethnic Kuki tribals and Meiteis that began May 3 following a solidarity march by members of the Christian Kuki tribal community in south Manipur. The protest was against a controversial order from the state high court for extending Scheduled Tribe status to the ethnic Meiteis. (Scheduled Tribe status is a provision of India’s national constitution that mandates free education and quotas in professions such as medicine and engineering, as well as government jobs.) The Meiteis were originally followers of indigenous Sanamahism and many converted to Hinduism as well as Christianity. Meiteis constitute more than 52% of the state’s population.Reports of tribal Kuki attacks on ethnic Meiteis spread like wildfire after the protest, which in

Pakistanis protest Nov. 2, 2018, in Lahore, shortly after the nation's supreme court acquitted Asia Bibi of blasphemy charges. / AMSyed/Shutterstock. Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Aug 15, 2023 / 15:02 pm (CNA). Pakistani lawmakers passed legislation that could land someone a life sentence in prison for insulting any wife, family member, or companion of the Islamic prophet Muhammad.The Criminal Laws (Amendment) Act, 2023, which would set a maximum penalty of life in prison for such offenses with a minimum sentence of 10 years in prison, has now passed both houses of Parliament. Under current law, blasphemy violations are only punishable by up to three years in prison, a fine, or both.To become law, the bill still needs the president’s signature.Pakistan’s lower legislative chamber, the National Assembly, passed the bill in January and the country’s upper chamber, the Senate, passed it last week on Aug. 7. The goal of this bill, based on its statement of objectives, is to crack down on “blasphemy on the internet and social media,” which has led to “terrorism” and “disruption in the country,” according to the Pakistani English-language newspaper Dawn.The anti-blasphemy law would apply to any person who directly or indirectly “defiles the sacred name” of any wife, family member, or companion of Muhammad through written word, spoken word, visible representation, imputation, innuendo, or insinuation. The companions of Muhammad refer to Muslims who personally met him during his life.Pakistan already punishes those who defile or insult the Qur’an with life imprisonment. Those who defile the name of Muhammad or other Muslim prophets are punished with death. The Muslim prophets include Abraham, Moses, Elijah, Jesus, and other biblical figures. Human rights groups have raised concerns that the laws could be used to target religious minorities in Pakistan. More than 95% of Pakistan is Muslim, and more than 75% of the country follows Sunni Islam.From 1987 through the beginning of 2021, more than 1,800 people were charged with blasphemy under the country’s various anti-blasphemy laws. As of March of this year, there were about 40 people who were either serving life sentences or on death row for blasphemy convictions. Since 1990, more than 80 people have been murdered for alleged blasphemy.In one high-profile case, a Christian woman named Asia Bibi was convicted of blasphemy in 2010, but her conviction was overturned by the Pakistani Supreme Court in 2018. She denied the allegation that she violated the blasphemy law and ultimately sought refuge in Canada.“Pakistani governments usually turn to the blasphemy laws when there is a political crisis, and to deflect attention from the country’s continuing economic and social woes,” Paul Marshall, the head of the South and Southeast Asian Action Team at the Religious Freedom Institute, told CNA. “The current push to strengthen the laws continues this trend.”“While half the victims are Muslim, the blasphemy laws disproportionately victimize religious minorities, and repeated studies have shown that they are used as a means of intimidation or score-settling in private disputes,” Marshall said. “The proposed increase in such laws will increase the climate of religious fear that already grips

A group of South Koreans pray at World Youth Day 2023 in Lisbon, Portugal. / Credit: Almudena Martínez-Bordiú / ACI Prensa ACI Prensa Staff, Aug 12, 2023 / 07:00 am (CNA). A Mexican missionary in South Korea, a priest from the Diocese of Seoul, and a woman religious from Korea who resides in Spain explained the expectations and difficulties of organizing the next World Youth Day in 2027 to ACI Prensa, CNA’s Spanish-language news partner.Father Ramiro Zúñiga has been working in South Korea for 24 years, where there is “a young, very lively Church, with many successes” from a vocational, economic, and organizational point of view.However, the Church also has “many challenges, because economic prosperity does not always entail spiritual well-being in the faith. For many people, economic security and the "good life," becomes one’s security where God is no longer needed.”The “boom that occurred in the ’80s and ’90s, when there were hundreds of people baptized in each church” has subsided, just as “the number of children, adolescents, and young people who attend Mass” has decreased, the missionary told ACI Prensa.Father Yoo Sanghyuk, a priest of the Diocese of Seoul, explained that “about 10% of the total population of Korea is Catholic” and noted that, although their communities “grew rapidly during difficult times, they are now following the European churches” in a certain decline.However, the Catholic Church “still has a good influence” in the country, he noted.Helena Oh Yun Geon, a missionary sister who resides in Spain, observed that despite not being numerous, “people respect Catholics very much and love priests and religious very much,” even though they do not profess the same faith.This is due to their interfaith effort to work together especially for the rights of the poor and for peace around the world, but in a particular way for peace between North and South Koreans.Expectations for WYD 2027Sanghyuk acknowledged that in Korea, “few people are aware of World Youth Day” and not many have experienced these encounters firsthand.However, he sees that being designated the site of the next WYD is an opportunity “to spread faith in Christ” and confirm the Catholic communities in Asia in their faith.The sister hopes that WYD will serve to show the unity and “the presence of the Catholic Church,” as well as showing Koreans “the joy of having faith.” In her opinion, “sharing faith with others and learning from each other will make us grow so that our faith is more alive, strong, and open.”Zúñiga, the Mexican missionary who in addition to carrying out his apostolic work teaches Spanish at the National University of Seoul, believes that “there is great joy” over Korea being named the site of the next World Youth Day. In his opinion, it will also be a great occasion for the government and in general for national pride.Challenges: language, transportation, and reception by societyThe organization of a massive event such as WYD involves great challenges of all kinds. Sister Helena stressed that it’s important to keep in

A Catholic Church in Nagasaki, destroyed by the Aug. 9, 1945, atomic bombing of the city. Public domain / null ACI Prensa Staff, Aug 9, 2023 / 16:30 pm (CNA). Today marks the 78th anniversary of the second atomic bomb dropped by the United States on Japan, this time on Nagasaki, a city with a rich history of Christian martyrs from the 16th and 17th centuries.On the day “Fat Man,” the name of the bomb, was dropped, the small Japanese Catholic community lost two-thirds of its members in the conflagration.After the destruction of Hiroshima on Aug. 6, 1945, the U.S. military under commander-in-chief President Harry Truman set its sights on the city of Kokura to force the surrender of Japan.However, bad weather caused the target to be changed to Nagasaki.Nagasaki had about 240,000 inhabitants. A miscalculation by the Americans meant that the bomb did not fall on the center of the city, but the effect was still devastating and immediately killed some 75,000 people. In the days that followed, a similar number died from radiation injuries and illnesses.History of the Catholic community in NagasakiSince the 16th century, Nagasaki has been an important center of Catholicism in Japan, initially evangelized by Jesuit and Franciscan missionaries.The persecution against Catholics, which came almost immediately, was recalled in 2007 in the memoirs of Cardinal Giacomo Biffi, who died in 2017, in which he expressed the strong impact that the news of the atomic bombs dropped on Japan in 1945 had on him.“I had already heard of Nagasaki,” he wrote. “I had come across it repeatedly in Giuseppe Schmidlin’s ‘Manual of the History of Catholic Missions,’ three volumes published in Milan in 1929. In Nagasaki, beginning in the 16th century, the first consistent Catholic community in Japan arose.”“In Nagasaki,” he pointed out, “on Feb. 5, 1597, 36 martyrs had given their lives for Christ (six Franciscan missionaries, three Japanese Jesuits, and 26 laymen), canonized by Pius IX in 1862.”However, “when the persecution resumed in 1637, up to 35,000 Christians were killed. Then the young community lived, so to speak, in the catacombs, cut off from the rest of the Catholic community and without priests; but it was not extinguished.”Thus, in 1865 “Father [Bernard] Petitjean discovered this ‘clandestine Church,’ which was made known to him after they made sure that he was celibate, that he was devoted to Mary, and that he obeyed the pope of Rome, and thus the sacramental life could resume regularly,” Biffi continued.Almost 20 years later, in 1889, “full religious freedom was proclaimed in Japan, and everything flourished.”“On June 15, 1891, the Diocese of Nagasaki was canonically established, which in 1927 welcomed Bishop [Januarius] Hayasaka as pastor, who was the first Japanese bishop and was personally consecrated by Pius IX. … [I]n 1929, out of 94,096 Japanese Catholics, some 63,698 were from Nagasaki,” the cardinal noted.That is to say, 16 years before the atomic hecatomb (an extensive loss of life), a little more than 63,000 faithful lived in Nagasaki.After this brief summary

Goa, the former Portuguese colony on the west coast of India, was evangelized by St. Francis Xavier whose mortal remains are preserved in the Bom Jesus Cathedral (pictured). / Anto Akkara Bangalore, India, Aug 9, 2023 / 12:35 pm (CNA). A Catholic priest in the Indian state of Goa was granted “anticipatory bail” Aug. 8 after police registered a criminal case against him for allegedly “hurting Hindu sentiments” in remarks he made about a Hindu king during a Sunday Mass in July.Hindu groups had staged demonstrations in front of the police station calling for criminal charges to be brought against Father Bolmax Pereira, parish priest of St. Francis Xavier Church in Chicalim in the Archdiocese of Goa.Pereira was quoted in the Mass posted on YouTube saying that 17th-century Hindu king Chatrapati Shivaji “was a national hero but not a god.”“There are a few people for whom Shivaji has become a god … Yes, he is a national hero. We have to honor and respect him. What he has done, the battles he fought to protect his people … for all that he deserves respect. He is a hero, but not a god. … We have to have a dialogue with our Hindu brethren and ask them ‘Is Shivaji your God? Or a national hero?’ If he is a national hero, let it be at that. Don’t make him a god. We need to understand their perspective. If we live in fear, we will not be able to rise again,” the Indian Express quoted Pereira’s homily Aug. 5 after police filed a criminal case against him.Hindu nationalist groups had shared the Catholic priest’s remarks on social media and carried out demonstrations demanding his arrest for offending their “religious sentiments.”The police submitted in the trial court on Aug. 8 that “Father Bolmax Pereira is not required in custody in connection with the [case] registered against him in the Shivaji Maharaj [great king] row.”Following this police response, the court accepted the priest’s plea for “anticipatory bail” in the case against him. As many as four cases related to the same incident have been registered against Pereira in four different police stations in Goa.Goa, the tiny former Portuguese colony on the west coast of India, was evangelized by St. Francis Xavier, whose mortal remains are preserved in the Bom Jesus Cathedral. The number of Christians — most of whom are Catholic — has been steadily declining and now comprise a quarter of the state’s 1.6 million population. The state has been ruled by the Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) for more than a decade. “Anticipatory bail” in the Indian legal system allows the accused to be released from police custody even if arrested for an alleged crime. In Pereira’s case, the court ruled that in the event he is arrested for the crime, he is to be released on a bond of 20,000 rupees ($240) and a surety. Since the matter was “sub judice” (under consideration by the court and therefore prohibited from public discussion elsewhere), the priest declined

Relatives and friends of those killed in six weeks of fighting for control of the disputed Nagorno-Karabakh region visit the Yerablur Military Memorial Cemetery in Yerevan on Sept. 27, 2022, on the second anniversary of the conflict. / Karen Minasyan/AFP via Getty Images Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Jun 21, 2023 / 16:15 pm (CNA). The ongoing war between Azerbaijan and Armenia threatens the existence of Christian communities in the near east, former ambassador-at-large for international religious freedom Sam Brownback and other Christian leaders warned in a Tuesday press briefing.Brownback’s statements were delivered just days after he returned from a fact-finding trip to Armenia with the Christian human rights group Philos Project. Brownback, who is a Catholic, called Islamic Azerbaijan’s invasion of Armenia and its ongoing blockade of the Nagorno-Karabakh region the latest attempt at “religious cleansing” of the Christian nation.“Azerbaijan, with Turkey’s backing, is really slowly strangling Nagorno-Karabakh,” Brownback said. “They’re working to make it unlivable so that the region’s Armenian-Christian population is forced to leave, that’s what’s happening on the ground.”The ambassador added that if the United States does not intervene, “we will see again another ancient Christian population forced out of its homeland.”Brownback called for Congress to pass a “Nagorno-Karabakh Human Rights Act” to “establish basic security guarantees for the Nagorno-Karabakh population.”He also called on the U.S. to reinstate previously used sanctions on Azerbaijan should it continue its blockade.Christians in the near east have been subjected to similar attacks before, Brownback said. Yet according to the former ambassador, this time the religious cleansing is being “perpetrated with U.S.-supplied weaponry and backed by Turkey, a member of NATO.”Sandwiched between the Muslim nations of Turkey and Azerbaijan in the southern Caucasus, Armenia has Christian roots that go back to ancient times. Today the population is over 90% Christian, according to a 2019 report by the U.S. State Department.Conflict over the Nagorno-Karabakh region has been ongoing since Armenia and Azerbaijan, both former Soviet territories, claimed the land for themselves after the dissolution of the Soviet Union. After the First Nagorno-Karabakh War in 1994, Armenia gained primary control of Nagorno-Karabakh. Tensions between the two nations once again broke into outright military conflict in September 2020 when Azerbaijani troops moved to wrest control of the disputed region. The open conflict lasted only about two months, with Russia brokering a peace deal in November.The conflict resulted in Azerbaijan gaining control of large swathes of the region. This left Armenia’s only access point to Nagorno-Karabakh a thin strip of land called the “Lachin corridor.” A study published in the Population Research and Policy Review estimates that 3,822 Armenians and at least 2,906 Azerbaijanis were killed during the 2020 conflict. Today, an Azerbaijani blockade of the Lachin corridor, in place since December, is crippling Armenian infrastructure in Nagorno-Karabakh.“The situation is extremely urgent and existential,” Philos Project President Robert Nicholson said. “This is the oldest Christian nation facing again for the second time in only about a century the possibility of a genocide.” He was referring to the deaths of up to 1.5 million Armenians more than a

Pope Francis prays at his Wednesday audience in St. Peter’s Square on April 12, 2023. / Daniel Ibáñez/CNA Vatican City, Jun 4, 2023 / 06:45 am (CNA). Pope Francis prayed Sunday for the victims of a train crash in India that killed at least 275 people.“I am close to the injured and their families. May our heavenly Father welcome the souls of the deceased into his kingdom,” he said in his Angelus address on June 4. Hundreds of people were injured in the crash in the Balasore district of Odisha state, India’s worst rail crash in over two decades, according to Reuters. The crash was caused by an error in a passenger train’s electronic signaling system, which led it to change tracks and hit another train, which derailed. The two trains were carrying 2,296 people in total when they collided.The pope also sent a condolence telegram to India’s apostolic nuncio Archbishop Leopoldo Girelli the day after the accident. The telegram sent on the pope’s behalf by Vatican Secretary of State Cardinal Pietro Parolin said: "His Holiness Pope Francis was deeply saddened to learn of the immense loss of life caused by the train crash in Odisha State, and he assures all affected by this tragedy of his spiritual closeness.”“Entrusting the souls of the deceased to the loving mercy of the Almighty, he sends heartfelt condolences to those who mourn their loss. His Holiness likewise offers prayers for the many injured and for the efforts of the emergency service personnel, and he invokes upon them the divine gifts of courage and consolation.”

null / KREML, Shutterstock CNA Newsroom, May 19, 2023 / 16:30 pm (CNA). Four Catholic bishops from the U.S. and Japan called for G7 leaders to take action against nuclear weapons amid a “more dangerous” arms race and an escalated threat of nuclear war.“We strongly urge world leaders at the G7 Summit to show by example how international leadership is ready, willing, and able to work with nuclear weapons and nonnuclear weapons states to ensure no country or city ever suffers the horrors of nuclear war again,” said the four bishops in a May 15 letter to G7 leaders.Signing the letter were Archbishop Paul D. Etienne of Seattle and Archbishop John C. Wester of Santa Fe, New Mexico, joined by Archbishop Peter Michiaki Nakamura of Nagasaki and Bishop Alexis Mitsuru Shirahama of Hiroshima.The two U.S. bishops’ archdioceses have major connections to nuclear weapons. The letter said they are “the spiritual leaders of the diocese with the most spending on nuclear weapons in the United States (Santa Fe, New Mexico), the diocese with the most deployed strategic nuclear weapons in the United States (Seattle), and the only two dioceses in the world to have suffered atomic attacks (Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Japan).” Hiroshima and Nagasaki were the targets of the first atomic bombings in August 1945. The bombings from U.S. aircraft helped end the Second World War. The attacks caused an estimated 214,000 combined deaths immediately and tens of thousands more died from radiation exposure, according to BBC News.The American and Japanese bishops’ letter, citing their different histories, said: “We are compelled to speak out.” They noted the Russian invasion of Ukraine, which has raised fears of a nuclear exchange.“Rather than viewing the war in Ukraine as an overwhelming impediment toward making substantial progress, we view it instead as a clear demonstration of the absolute need to do so,” the bishops said.Hiroshima hosts the 49th G7 summit May 19 to May 21. The event brings together leaders from the U.S., Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, and the U.K. to discuss matters of global importance. Russia’s invasion of Ukraine is a major issue at the meeting.The four bishops urged G7 leaders “to undertake concrete steps toward global, verifiable nuclear disarmament.” They deemed the current nuclear arms race to be “more dangerous than the first.” They cited “multiple nuclear actors and the advent of new cyber and hypersonic weapons and artificial intelligence.”“Former U.S. Defense Secretary Robert McNamara asserted that humanity survived the Cuban Missile Crisis only by luck. Luck is not sufficient to ensure the continuing survival of the human race,” their letter said.The bishops encouraged G7 leaders to focus international attention on “the importance of nuclear arms control and disarmament” and to show a “global commitment” to nuclear nonproliferation efforts.“Throughout the years, world leaders have spoken about the need to eliminate the threat of nuclear weapons, prevent a new nuclear arms race, and avoid the ultimate catastrophe that is potentially civilization-ending nuclear war,” the bishops said. “But it is now time to translate rhetoric into