ASIA/TURKMENISTAN - Minute Catholic community in a land of first evangelisation, despite little religious freedom and no place of worship, dreams of building its own church one day soon

Ashgabat (Agenzia Fides) - In a country which is 90% desert land, the Gospel is beginning to flower thanks to the work and prayers of Fr. Andrzej Madej, an Oblate Missionary of Mary Immaculate(OMI), Superior of the Catholic mission in Turkmenistan. The former Soviet territory has a population of 5 million 90% Muslim. The Catholic community consists of 64 baptised Catholics, fifty catechumens preparing for baptism and a group of ‘friends of Christianity’”, Polish born Father Madej, aged 55 told Fides.
Turkmenistan, like Kazakstan, Tadjikistan, Uzbekistan, Kirghizistan, is a land of “first evangelisation”: there are no churches and the government does not allow any to be built. The regime of President Saparmurad Nijazov prohibits missionary work except on the part Sunni Muslims and Russian Orthodox Christians. There is a local community of Armenian Catholics but it has not yet obtained official recognition. According to the Catholic aid agency ‘Aid to the Church in Need’ for a religious community to be recognised the pastor or leader must be a citizen of the country. Most of the 64 Latin Catholics are of Polish and German origin. At the moment Mass is celebrated in the Papal Nunciature at Ashgabat or in private homes. The Catholic community has not even succeeded in regaining possession of its centuries old church at Turkmenbashi, the only Armenian church to survive the Soviet period, today in a state of total abandon.
However, Fr Andrzej Madej, who resides in the capital Ashgabat, is full of hope for the future: “We are two priests and the community draws strength from catechesis with adults and young people, prayer, the recitation of the Rosary in particular, celebration of the Eucharist. There are no women religious and we have no church. We say Mass and hold other prayers in private”.
He added: “When I met Pope John Paul II five months before his death I showed him a stone from Turkmenistan’s Kopetdag mountains and I said: ‘Holy Father we hope one day to build a Catholic Church here. The Pope blessed the stone which is still here in my apartment, but not for long we hope”. (PA) (Agenzia Fides 15/9/2006 righe 29 parole 292)