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MONGOLIA SALESIANS EXPAND MISSION IN RESPONSE
TO LACK OF SOCIAL SERVICES
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ULAANBAATAR
(UCAN) -- Salesians in Mongolia are expanding their work to help
fill gaps left by the demise of socialism in the country, according
to a Salesian official.
Salesian mission procurator Father Karl Oerder, on a visit here
Sept. 13-19, underlined the importance of establishing a Salesian
community in Darhan city, in addition to the four-member community
in Ulaanbaatar.
Father Oerder told UCA News after visiting Darhan that what used
to be a "socialist paradise" has now become a ghost city,
because some 20,000 people abandoned it in the past decade.
Its huge factories have closed, big schools and public buildings
have emptied, and there are a lot of unemployed people, said the
priest, who is based in Bonn, Germany.
Darhan, 200 kilometers north of Ulaanbaatar, now has a population
of about 83,000 and is the third largest city in Mongolia, according
to its mayor.
Father Oerder said the Salesians "can give a necessary contribution
for the people." He spoke of seeing "similar situations
in many places, such as the Ukraine, Poland, Slovakia, Slovenia
and Croatia" where, he said, people lost their identity with
the collapse of communism.
After 70 years of Soviet communist influence and help, Mongolia
held its first multiparty elections in 1990 and implemented capitalist
reforms. Since then, the country has faced increased inflation,
unemployment and crime.
According to Father Oerder, a second Salesian community in the country
is also important because missioners need to support each other
in their work.
He noted that the nearest Salesian communities are thousands of
kilometers away in Russia, Korea and Vietnam, and it is "quite
impossible" for the missioners in Mongolia to meet them regularly.
He said he will recommend to Salesian superiors that more Salesians
be assigned to Mongolia.
Father Carlo Maria Savio Villegas, superior of the Salesian mission
in Mongolia, told UCA News, "The local government already wants
to give us a building to start (in Darhan), but we still have no
one to go there. We also need to renovate the building, and that
requires funds."
The Salesians plan to start an oratory -- a place where "friends
can meet and spend time together" -- in Darhan.
In Ulaanbaatar, Father Oerder spent two days at the Don Bosco Technical
Vocational School. "It is a great wonder what has been accomplished
in less than two years. The school is running, and I saw the first
graduates," he said.
Four Salesian missioners -- a Filipino, a Slovak, a Korean, a Vietnamese
-- reside at the school.
Father Oerder also said he is impressed with the cooperation among
the various Religious congregations in Mongolia. As an example,
he said, Missionaries of Charity sisters have sent some of their
pupils to the Salesian school. The Salesians, in turn, send homeless
teenagers to the sisters' mini-school to learn basic literacy and
arithmetic before they enroll in the vocational school. "It
all seems very well organized," the mission procurator said.
Among future plans of the vocational school are workshops to teach
auto repair and hydraulics, and a gym.
Father Oerder told UCA News that the visit, his first to Mongolia,
was to see how the Salesian community was coping with its work,
in what ways it needs help and what projects are being planned.
"I have to look for much money in Germany," the priest
concluded.
There are some 70,000 Salesians worldwide.
September 30, 2002 |
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