Kendall Park parish supports ‘twin’ in Mongolia

The old adage “Charity begins at home” holds true, even when “home” is a land more than 6,000 miles away.

St. Augustine of Canterbury Parish, Kendall Park, reached out to its twin parish of Mary, the Mother of Mercy in Arvaikheer, Mongolia, this spring in a generous display of faith, sending the fledgling parish and its Ulaanbaatar Prefecture a donation of $15,000. The money will be used to complete a project to refurbish its five-story headquarters’ offices, add guest rooms and build a new seminary.

St. Augustine’s relationship with the Mongolian faith family was forged in 2018 with Pope Francis’ appointment of Archbishop Alfred Xuereb as Apostolic Nuncio in South Korea and Mongolia, two of the Church’s fastest-growing areas. St. Augustine’s pastor, Father Robert G. Lynam, invited Archbishop Xuereb to concelebrate Mass, a liturgy even more blessed because of the presence of the archbishop’s extended family members.

According to the website GCatholic.org, Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia, is an apostolic prefecture, or a ‘pre-diocesan’ missionary jurisdiction not yet sufficiently developed for diocesan status. It is estimated that the region is host to roughly 1,317 Catholics, or less than one percent of its total population of more than three million people. Covering about 580,000 square miles, the prefecture contains eight parishes, three missions, 25 priests and two seminarians to minister to the Catholic flock.

In July 2019, Deacon Denis F. Mayer, who exercises his ministry at St. Augustine’s, and parishioner Barbara Corio were members of a pilgrimage to Mongolia with the Consolata Fathers to visit their sister parish in Arvaikheer, a town near the Gobi Desert. The domed structure, known as a ger, was adorned with a homemade altar and cross, and the people’s smiling faces needed no translation.

“It was just a baby Church,” recalled Father Lynam. “Their Catholic faith was just beginning.”

Relationships between the two faith families continued to grow; even the students in St. Augustine School sent videos, pictures and gifts to their young counterparts.

Once pastor of Mary, Mother of Mercy Parish and a member of the Consolata Fathers, Bishop Giorgio Marengo of the Apostolic Prefecture 

shared his concerns about the growing Church of Mongolia in a May 12 letter to Father Lynam.

“The Catholic Church is, in effect, a ‘little flock,’ which seeks to deepen in faith and make it bear fruit in solidarity and promotion of the values of the Kingdom, in constant dialogue with the faithful of other religious traditions and with people of good will,” Bishop Marengo wrote.

The bishop requested a donation from St. Augustine’s to renovate the prefecture’s 26-year-old headquarters, create new offices and guest rooms, and, most important for their future, to set aside space to begin formation of any seminarians they might enroll.

“As you may have guessed, the need for local clergy is absolutely of prime importance, precisely to grow in an ever-greater sense of ‘diocesanity’ and hope for a real rootedness of the faith,” Bishop Marengo wrote. “We would like to prepare ourselves to welcome the young people whom the Holy Spirit will raise up.”

The parish’s donation of $15,000 came from money raised by its Outreach Ministries; St. Augustine’s generosity amounts to roughly $60,000 in donations from the St. Vincent de Paul and other committees annually, Father Lynam reports.

A wire transfer completed, and with funds in hand to complete the project, Bishop Marengo’s jubilant response arrived in a May 31 missive.

Father Lynam shared pictures of the modern, four-story building primed for renovation thanks to the parish’s help, and said, “We have a spiritual relationship with Bishop Giorgio and want to build up the Church in more formal ways.”

He added, “It is a natural response to evangelization of this ‘baby Church,’ growing day by day, and we are happy to be part of spreading the Gospel.”