DARKHAN:
30 October
2013
--
Darkhan,
Mongolia's industrial city in the north, is a new Church in
every
possible sense. In 2007, as the first Catholic community
outside
Ulaanbaatar, 23 people were baptized, thus adding a
significant number
to the entire Catholic community of Mongolia which, that year,
was
estaimted to be around 375 members. Now, six years later,
something
else is stirring in Darkhan, from amongst those 23.
By now, the 23 has grown to around 170. The parish is a
Salesian parish
(Fr Paul Leung is now the parish priest), and in addition to
the usual
Salesian activity of building a Church around young people as
well as
adults, increasing the Salesian Family has been a key part of
implanting the charism: the Sisters, of course, and the
Cooperators.
Formation to the ACS was already underway by 2009. By May 21
(recalling
the day of the Darkhan Church of Mary Help of Christian's
consecration)
there were 10 Salesian Cooperators who made their first
Promise. Six
renewed their Promise in 2013 one of whom is a university
student now
in UB, the other five living and working in Darkhan. Fr
Klement caught
up with them during his recent visit to Mongolia, and what
follows are
snippets, really, of a conversation with them. Their names:
John, Mary
and Agnes.
John is an art teacher at the Don Bosco Center. Mary, who is
the ASC
coordinator, is the English teacher at the Center, while Agnes
is a
social worker there. They acknowledge that being Cooperators,
in
addition to their baptism, has changed their lives. They are
all
married with children, and they believe that being Cooperators
has
increased their faith, helped them to talk with their
children, helped
them to be more active on behalf of young people in Darkhan.
They have read what they can - but that depends on access to
Saelsian
literature in a language they can understand. As an English
teacher,
Mary can also heop with translation. The Salesian Bulletin -
largely
unkown there up till now - will be important. It would be very
helpful
if a copy of English editions of the SB could be sent to
Darkhan, and
Ulaanbaatar for that matter too. Can SB editors in the region
help? It
will also help if more English study can be encouraged amongst
the
Cooperators in Mongolia.
They would like to connect with other ACS in the region,
perhaps even
have a seminar or formation event located there. Certainly
mary would
like to be in touch with the EAO (in Cooperator terms that
would be
EAR) regional leadership.
The Darkhan Cooperators have an apostolate - besides their
professional
activity at the Center, John, Mary and Agnes are catechists in
the
parish; they are also interested in learning about the range
of
apostolates ACS members engage in worldwide.
Fr Paul Leung is the ACS Delegate. There are just two
Salesians there
(Fr Simon is the usual other member of the community,
currently back
briefly in Seoul; Fr Anton has replaced him while he is away).
The Cooperators, it seems, will soon be joined by another
branch of the
the wider Salesian Family - Past Pupils. With schools of some
prominence now in Mongolia (DB Skill Technical Center in UB
has been
recently recognised officially as one of Mongolia's top 50
institutions), the local sSalesians, but also the worldwide PP
movement, has expressed interest in setting up the Past Pupils
on a
more formal basis.
