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Pope Francis Arrives in Mongolia

The war in Ukraine never ceases to be relevant on papal trips.

During the flight to Mongolia, Pope Francis blessed this canteen pierced by shrapnel from an explosion. The Ukrainian serviceman who was carrying it survived it and to thank God that he is still alive he left this object in a church in Lviv.

Francis exchanged a few brief words with the journalists, about 70 of them.

“Mongolia seems to be never ending and its inhabitants are few,” Pope Francis said. “A small population with great culture.”

After more than 9 hours of flying, the plane landed in Mongolia. From the windows you could see the great steppe. A vast country where there are only a little more than 3 million inhabitants and where Catholics number less than 1,400. This was the destination chosen by Francis for his 43rd international trip and his fourteenth visit to an Asian country.

On the ground he was welcomed with the traditional offering given to guests. The humble aaruul, a traditional product usually made from yak milk and part of the travel provisions. It was very common for Mongolians to carry it on their horseback journeys across the vast steppe.

Mongolia is a strategic land on a political level because it is located between Russia and China. In fact the papal flight passed through Chinese airspace and as is traditional the pontiff wrote a telegram to the authorities to thank them for the gesture.

The 86-year-old Pope is the first in history to visit Mongolia. A five-day trip was desired by the Argentinian Pope whose priority is to visit areas where Catholics are a minority. His visit is an important occasion not only for Christians but also for the whole country.

Transportation Union Hires Consultant to Check on Carriage Horses in the City

by Katie Vasquez 

Horse-drawn carriage rides have been offered around the Big Apple since the 1800s, but in the past few years, the practice has been plagued with some controversy.

A horse named Ryder collapsed and struggled to stand up before stunned onlookers on a Hell’s Kitchen street in August 2022.  The horse was later diagnosed with cancer and died two months after. 

The animal rights group, New Yorkers for Clean Livable and Safe Streets, or NYCLASS, believes incidents like that are the reason carriage rides should be eliminated.  

There are numerous regulations in place for carriage horse owners and drivers. The horses can only work nine hours a day. They get at least five weeks of vacation a year. They also cannot work when temperatures are above 90 degrees or below 18 degrees.  

Tristan Aldrich was hired as an independent carriage horse industry expert in late July by Transportation Workers Union Local 100 (TWU Local 100). He has no ties to the carriage drivers.

The union representing the carriage drivers is mandated to check on all 140 horses once a week.  

“The Department of Health and the vets wouldn’t sign off on horses if there was mistreatment and malnourishment of these animals,” Aldrich said.  

 “I’ve had a very good reception,” Aldrich said of the drivers. “I think the first couple of weeks, you know everyone’s a little guarded, new person, you know, ‘someone trying to put us out of work.’” 

If Aldrich sees a horse limping or breathing heavily, he will take the driver and carriage off the road. He will also address any abusive behavior by drivers. Fortunately, he said, that hasn’t happened yet. 

Aldrich said he monitors the health of all the horses and makes sure the drivers are following all the rules. 

But NYCLASS called his hire a “smokescreen” and still insists there should be no horse-drawn carriages on city streets.

In addition to Tristan’s oversight, an equine veterinarian has now been hired to check on the animals twice a month. 

The carriage drivers say these initiatives should ensure the tradition of carriage horse rides goes forward.

Catholic News Headlines for Thursday 08/31/2023

 

The horse carriage driver’s union in New York City has hired someone, whose only job is to make sure the horses are being well cared for.

Pope Francis is the first pontiff to visit the country of Mongolia, which only has three catholic churches.

The pontiff will also visit the Cathedral of Saints Peter and Paul in Mongolia.

New York City Mayor Eric Adams held his own migrant rally this morning to once again call on the federal government to expedite work authorizations for asylum seekers.

Faith in Mongolia: Catholicism Grew After Fall of Communism

After the fall of communism in 1991, religious practice was restored in Mongolia.

Buddhism had been predominant before communism and is again the most widely practiced religion in Mongolia.

However, with the end of religious repression, the Catholic community began to grow.

A missionary from the Philippines was named Mongolia’s first Catholic bishop in 2003.

There are now just under 1,500 Catholics in the country. 

Pope Francis will visit the country for the first time on Friday, Aug. 31.

Elise Allen, senior correspondent for Crux, joins Currents News to discuss the historic papal trip.

Preparing for Mongolia: Professor Expects Papal Visit to Be Spiritual and Political

By Katie Vasquez

Mongolia is a country that doesn’t receive a lot of visits from foreign leaders.

This papal visit is historic, because Pope Francis will be the first pontiff to visit the Asian country.

Professor Morris Rossabi, a Mongolian history professor at Columbia University, has visited the country 20 times and written or contributed to countless books on it. 

Today, a little more than 1,400 people identify as Catholics out of the 3.3 million people who live in Mongolia. But Professor Rossabi says Catholics have been visiting there since the 13th century. 

“There were a couple Catholic priests that went to Mongolia up until 1920 and who tried to proselytize among the Mongols,” Professor Rossabi. “Then communism took hold in 1921 and so that was forbidden, but there were a number of Catholic priests who continued to write about Mongolia.”

When communism collapsed in 1990, the people of Mongolia were able to practice religion freely and Christianity has grown, but the country is mostly Buddhist. 

The nation is located between China and Russia, which may be another reason for the papal visit. Pope Francis has tried to establish relations after years of no contact between the Vatican and Beijing. 

“There’s been a kind of, not a deal made, but a better relationship between the Chinese Catholic Church and the Vatican and this visit to Mongolia might strengthen that aspect,” Professor Rossabi said. The Holy Father will spend most of his time in the capital where half of the country’s population lives. 

Professor Rossabi expects him to also address the environment and poverty.  “Mongolia has a high incidence of poverty; more than 30% of the people live below the poverty line,” he said.

Pope Francis will stay in Mongolia Aug. 31 through Sept. 4, which Professor Rossabi believes is a longer time than most foreign leaders spend there.

Around the Clock Prayer: Manhattan’s First Perpetual Adoration Chapel Opens

by Katie Vasquez

Behind a blue door on Sixth Avenue lies the only perpetual adoration chapel in Manhattan.

St. Joseph’s Church pastor, Father Boniface Endorf said the process to transform the chapel from a choir room took about four and a half years, with some construction delays due to the pandemic.

“The floors, the ceilings, the walls, absolutely everything you can see is new,” Father Endorf said.

The opening of this sanctuary comes at a time when crime is on the minds of New Yorkers and the number of felonies is rising across the city.

The chapel is located within the area covered by the NYPD’s 6th Precinct, which has reported a 21% increase in felony assault from last year.

Parishioner Maureen Healy has lived in the neighborhood for 30 years and said she’s been more cautious.

“I’m very careful walking in the streets now. Because there are a lot of strange people now and I’m just being very very careful,” Healy said.

Father Endorf hopes the chapel will be a sanctuary of peace for people that visit.

“Certainly, God’s grace is very powerful,” Father Endorf said. “And to have prayer at the center of this neighborhood of Manhattan and of the city will have an effect on many people’s lives.”

There are security measures in place. Visitors have to sign up for a key card to access the outside door and they also ask people to sign into a kiosk before they go in.

“It’s to protect the space but also to protect the adorers,” Father Endorf said. “If they know the people here are people coming to worship and as you know in New York, if you just leave an open door, you don’t know what’s going to happen.”

The chapel has only been open since late July, but 300 people have already signed up, including Daniel Vignon, who visits once a week.

The Greenwich Village resident agrees with the registration process because he knows safety is a top priority.

“I can definitely understand that from the Father’s concern about safety because that’s one of the main reasons why the parish is not always open,” Vignon said.

Father Endorf hopes more people will come to pray and enjoy the space.

Catholic News Headlines for Tuesday 08/29/2023

 

There’s a sanctuary in the city offering a place of peace at any time of day.

A mass was held yesterday to conclude the year-long bicentennial celebration of the Cathedral Basilica of St. James.

A former flight attendant is pushing a beverage cart from Newark airport to Shanksville, Pennsylvania to honor the flight crew who died there on 9/11.

Pope Francis received “E’ Giornalismo,” an award known as the Italian Pulitzer.

60 Years Since March on Washington: Looking Back on Historic Event

It was a call for economic and racial equality, a call to action that brought more than 200,000 people to the national mall in Washington D.C. on August 28, 1963, exactly 60 years ago.

It’s a day best remembered for Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr’s historical “I Have a Dream” speech.

“Now is the time to make real the promises of democracy,” Dr. King, a Civil Rights Leader, said during his speech.

Among the hundreds of thousands who attended the march, were two young activists, Courtland Cox, then 22, and Edward Flanagan, then 20, who were filled with hope.

Cox, 82, was a 22-year-old working for the civil rights organization, the Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) at the time.

 “My thought today is that we succeeded in changing this country,” Cox, now Chairman at SNCC Legacy Project, said. 

As a young organizer, Cox was responsible for arranging safe transportation for people making the trek from the south to Washington D.C.

For Cox, there were many challenges in the days leading up to the march.

“The challenge from the top was [that] the Kennedy Administration was opposed to John Lewis’ speech,” Cox recalls.

Cox worked alongside then 23-year-old civil rights activist John Lewis, who was the chairman of SNCC at the time.

This picture shows the two men as they rewrote the speech to tone it down to make it less critical of the Kennedy administration’s civil rights bill, which they felt didn’t go far enough to protect people from police brutality.

“John Lewis, Jim Foreman, and myself were in the back of the Lincoln Memorial rechanging John Lewis’ speech to make sure, that while it was critical, it was not negative,” Cox said.

“It is true that we support the administration’s civil rights bill,” Lewis said during his speech. “We support it with great reservation, however.”

Flanagan, who was a waiter, wanted to take a stand for civil rights, like scores of others.

“It was in fact a march for jobs and freedom,” Flanagan, who attended the March on Washington in 1963, said.

Both Cox and Flanagan agree, while much was accomplished that day, the work is not over.

“We are still, while in a much better place than we were in ’63, not in a place one would expect 60 years on,” Flanagan said.

“We succeeded in doing a number of things by what we did in the past,” Cox said. But we also know we have to do much more for the future.”