I received this email – as did many others – from a priest-colleague in Rome. I thought it was fascinating and am sharing here, but redacting some personal details for privacy.
Cathedral of Sts. Peter and Paul, Ulaan Baatar, Mongolia. source: WikimediaCommons
7 July 2017
I arrived here in Ulaan Baatar last evening to participate in the 25th anniversary celebration of the Church’s presence in Mongolia, and I invite you to join with us in prayer and thanksgiving on Sunday for all that God has accomplished here.
With the collapse of communism in 1992, it was Pope St. John Paul II who recognized the fertile ground for evangelisation in this land, and asked the Superior General of the Congregation of the Immaculate Heart of Mary (CICM) to send several misssionaries. Four arrived, one of whom was a young Filipino priest who had worked for ten years in Taiwan, now Bishop Wenceslao Padilla, current Apostolic Prefect of the Mission.
I have been associated with the Church in Mongolia since 2002, and was named a “Partner in the Mission” by the Bishop in 2007. When I first visited, there were 186 Catholics. Today there are more than 1300, with 79 missionaries 45 of whom are religious women, including members of the Congregation of Jesus. There are now seven parishes in the country: four here in the Capital and three others in more remote parts of the countryside.
The Mongolian Church has grown largely because of the “works of mercy” with which it is involved: outreach to the poor, the sick, the elderly, the homeless, the addicted- and now also in the education of youth. There is also strong collaboration with the Buddhist Community here as well as good relations with other Christian denominations.
As I said to a bishop (then the U.S. Bishops’ Representative to the Federation of Asian Bishops Conferences), as our plane took off after our first visit here in 2002: “Seeing all that I have seen here, it makes one very proud to be a Catholic.” My admiration of the Church’s witness and ministry here has only grown on my return visits these past fifteen years.
We congratulate Bishop Padilla and the Church in Mongolia on their 25th anniversary, and pray that God abundantly bless its bright future.
Today is also the day for presidential elections, so we pray, as well, for the People of Mongolia and for its soon to be elected government.
The Ecumenism Blog 
Hello. Thank you for sharing this. However, there are no members of the Congregation of Jesus in Mongolia. There are only CICMs (Congregation of the Immaculate Heart of Mary – the pioneers of this mission), Salesians, Consolatas, and Fidei Donum priests from South Korea and France (1).
The first team of missionaries who arrived in Mongolia were 3 CICM (2 Filipinos and 1 Belgian)
Dear Fr. Mbumba, thank you for the updates! I have never had the opportunity, so am very interested in what is going on with the Church there!
I didn’t see this church when I visited UB, but did see some of the remote monasteries when we headed into the heartland of Mongolia. Fascinating country.