Slovak Teenager To Be Beatified As A Martyr To Purity

A 16-year-old peasant girl will be beatified as a martyr in Slovakia, seven decades after she was shot in front of her family for resisting rape by a drunken Soviet soldier.

Anna Kolesárová “embodies the faithful layperson living in their family, regularly receiving sacraments, praying the Rosary and approaching God through good works. Her heroic testimony, drawn from a sincere spiritual life, is something every Catholic and believer can aspire to,”

Archbishop Bernard Bober of Kosice, Slovakia, told Catholic News Service Aug. 21.

He said honoring Kolesárová, whose “reputation for holiness” had inspired young Slovaks, would give the local Church a unique chance for spiritual growth.

“The story of 16-year-old Anna Kolesarova offers a strong message, of course, for the younger generation,” he said.

“Celebrating the divine grace which was present in her life will enable us to gather the faithful, but also to reach the wider civil society,” Archbishop Bober said. “Her story provides a spiritual response to today’s nostalgia for purity. It’s a message not confined to the younger generation, but one to move all faithful people.

“Servants of God who gave their lives for Christ in modern Slovak history were the victims of a totalitarian communist regime which suppressed religious freedom, and this will be the first layperson declared blessed,” he added.

Cardinal Giovanni Becciu, prefect of the Vatican’s Congregation for Saints’ Causes, will beatify Kolesárová in Kosice Sept. 1. At least 30,000 Catholics are expected to attend the beatification in Lokomotiva Stadium.

Kolesárová was born July 14, 1928, at Vysoka nad Uhom, near the present Slovak-Ukrainian border.

When Kolesárová was 13 her mother died, so she took over household duties and regularly attended Mass and Rosary services with her father and elder brother.

When the Red Army captured the village Nov. 22, 1944, witnesses said Kolesárová had donned her mother’s black dress to disguise her youth; she took refuge in the cellar. Asked to find food when a drunken soldier entered the house, Kolesárová broke free when he tried to rape her. She was shot twice through the head in front of her father and neighbors.

The 16-year-old was buried at night in a makeshift coffin but was given a formal funeral a week later by Fr. Anton Lukac, who recorded that she had received confession and Communion before her death and made a “sacrifice of holy purity.”

In a website statement, the Kosice Archdiocese said accounts of her testimony had been secretly gathered in the 1950s by Jesuit Father Michal Potocky. The statement said her grave had become a place of pilgrimage only after the 1989 collapse of communist rule.

In a pastoral letter, read in churches Aug. 19, the Slovak bishops’ conference said Kolesárová had been “fully aware, despite her young age” of what awaited her, and had instinctively “followed the voice of conscience” rather than “having time to think and philosophize.”

“Today, the temptations against purity are much greater than before — they weigh on the young soul from every direction, via the internet and media,” the letter said.

“We are tempted to ignore or succumb to manifestations of our imperfect human nature and the fragilities which characterize us as sinful people. In the light of faith, however, we are called to observe limits and boundaries, to be greater and more persistent.”

Credits : The Catholic Sun 

Catholicism In North Korea ---- A Silent and Suffering Church

For Western Catholics who sometimes despair of keeping the faith in a secularized world, or passing it on to their children, Fr. Paul Hwang might offer a bit of perspective: Try it in North Korea sometime.

The country’s microscopically small Catholic population – estimated at 3,000 by the government, 800 by the local church – has no resident priest, no access to the sacraments, no possibility of overt catechesis or faith sharing, and can’t even engage in simple gestures such as the Sign of the Cross in public without fear of surveillance.

Hwang, a South Korean, said he is certain there is no Catholic Mass being celebrated anywhere in the North, in a nation of some 23 million people, even underground.

“The South Korean church would know if it were happening,” he said. “It would not be possible because of fear of the security forces.”

Hwang is the National Director of Caritas Corea, a Catholic relief agency based in Seoul, South Korea, and part of Caritas Internationalis, a Vatican-based confederation of 162 Catholic relief, development, and social service organizations worldwide. In the last four years, Hwang has been in and out of North Korea 10 times.

In the early twentieth century, North Korea was home to a small but flourishing Catholic community, with two territorial dioceses and a territorial abbacy entrusted to the Benedictine Order.

During the 1950-53 Korean War, however, the Catholic presence was all but snuffed out – every priest in the country was exiled, imprisoned or executed, and all Catholic institutions were seized by the state.

All 18 Benedictines in North Korea at the time of the war perished, either by immediate execution or from eventual death in a labor camp. Their abbey was taken over by the Communists, and is today a Faculty of Agriculture.

The last Bishop of Pyongyang, Francis Hong Yong-ho, is still listed in the Annuario Pontificio, the official Vatican yearbook, as “disappeared” since March 10, 1962. Since that time, the archbishop of Seoul, South Korea, has been designated the apostolic administrator of Pyongyang.

Today, Hwang described a situation that in some ways seems eerily reminiscent of the catacombs.

The only believers who have even a rudimentary sort of religious formation, he said, are North Korean Catholics who have crossed the Tumen River in the northeast of the country, into a Chinese border zone where family members from the two Koreas often reunite. There, Catholics from the south can pass on some basic religious instruction to family members from the north.

“Some were baptized in this way,” Hwang said.

Afterwards, Hwang said, the northern Catholics go home and practice the faith as best they can in private. They dare not engage in any public conversation about matters of faith or any religious practice, however, for fear of harassment from security forces.

While all religions are kept on a tight leash, restrictions sometimes fall on the Catholic Church in specially harsh fashion.

Monsignor Pietro Parolin, the Vatican’s Undersecretary for Relations with States, pointed out Oct. 19 that Catholics are the only Christian body in Pyongyang without their own minister appointed by that church’s authorities.

There is only one Catholic church in the capital city, called the “Changchung Church” after the neighborhood in which it’s located, where a Liturgy of the Word is offered on Sunday.

However, the church is administered by the “North Korean Catholic Association,” created by the Communist government in June 1988 as a means of control over Catholic life – much like the “Patriotic Association” which regulates Catholic affairs in China.

 Also Read :

Witnesses Tell About Christianity In North Korea

https://cruxnow.com/church-in-asia/2019/02/01/witnesses-tell-about-christianity-in-north-korea/

The Evangelizing Power Of Eucharistic Adoration By Adam Janke

Before my wife and I entered the Catholic Church in 2005 I found myself spending increasing amounts of time in Eucharistic Adoration at our local perpetual adoration chapel in Grand Rapids, MI.

As a young twenty-something Baptist I was struck by the sense of peace I found in this "sacred space." During my three-year journey into the fullness of faith I started attending Adoration even before I went to Mass on a regular basis. The fast pace of life had left me constantly strained and stressed out and Catholic friends suggested I spend quiet time in prayer at Adoration to regain my bearings. The chapel was less distracting than praying at home and Protestant churches were not open late at night.

As time went on I started to retreat there more and more often and Jesus allowed me to enter into His rest. The very act of spending time before the Lord, exposed in the Eucharist, transformed me even if I did not yet fully realize the implications for my family.

The Catholic Church offered something that would fulfill an immediate need I had in my life. Looking back I realize now how Christ was working on my heart in those silent moments. In speaking about the Eucharist Benedict XVI said: "Christ's death on the Cross is the culmination of that turning of God against Himself in which He gives Himself in order to raise man up and save him.

This is love in its most radical form" (Sacramentum Caritatis, n. 8).

Cardinal Raymond Burke follows up, "The Crucifixion, Death and Resurrection of our Lord are, in fact, only fully understood in the context of the Lord's Supper, the Eucharistic Sacrifice and Banquet" (Divine Love Made Flesh, 80). No wonder then, that I felt so at home and at peace in Adoration. I was with Christ who was pouring out His love for me.

After my conversion and since accepting work as a Director of Religious Education (who also does
youth ministry), I take every opportunity I can to help my parishioners spend time with Our Lord in the Eucharist. Many of my parishioners have also been transformed by the evangelistic power of Jesus in Eucharistic Adoration.

Our youth started experiencing Adoration in the summer of 2007 at their first youth conference at Franciscan University of Steubenville. With no prior knowledge, prompting, or leading by any of the staff, two of our teens experienced a gift from the Holy Spirit known as "resting in the Spirit."

While it is difficult to define, Fr. Robert DeGrandis describes this grace as a "full surrender of the body during prayer when a person can be literally overwhelmed by the power of the Holy Spirit and falls to the ground in a peaceful state of prayer." Many of them experienced healing and one teen even felt convicted by Jesus to immediately go to the Sacrament of Reconciliation.

This girl told our youth group about how she had been resistant to go at first, but how free she felt after Confession. When we got back to the parish our teens cornered our pastor in the sacristy after Mass and demanded more opportunities for Adoration at the parish. They had fallen in love with Jesus. Our startled pastor was only too happy to oblige.

Over the next few years we expanded opportunities for Adoration at youth ministry events such as our New Year's Eve lock-in and our opening and closing of the year ceremonies for our Parish School of Religion. Our parents share with me how much they love having Adoration and how it has given them a new and deeper relationship with Jesus.

More recently our parish has started offering a monthly "Festival of Praise," which is centered around a meal and an hour of Eucharistic Adoration. Prayer teams are available to pray with participants, and we offer confession whenever possible. After our very first festival, a senior citizen came up to me in tears and told me that is the first time she felt the presence of the Lord in her heart.

During a procession our deacon stopped in front of a six-year-old boy, holding the Eucharist out to him. The deacon was about to move on but sensed he should stay a few moments longer. The boy, named Joseph, held out his hand to the monstrance with a look of wonder. Afterward, I asked Joseph what had happened and he said, "I was tired of holding my candle so I was glad that I got to put that down. Jesus came over to me and he told me that he loved me and that made me happy."

Jesus speaks to, converts, blesses, and transforms us through his True Presence. We have also added thirty minutes of Adoration to our First Communion retreat. I have found that the children, more so than the adults, get it. They want to be there. As a catechist I see it as the fulfillment of my duties: to bring them to Jesus, get out of the way, and allow Jesus to love them.

Cardinal Burke again states: "The Holy Eucharist is an incomprehensible gift of God's love which fills us with gratitude and with the desire to make this most wonderful gift, our Lord Jesus Himself, known to all our brothers and sisters. If, as is true, the Holy Eucharist is the source and summit of the Church's life, the Holy Eucharist is also the source and summit of the Church's mission in the world" (Divine Love Made Flesh, 178).

I have spoken to youth ministers who believe that teens won't like Adoration because it isn't fun enough, and I've reassured them that through Adoration and the experience of the True Presence of Jesus, those teens (and all of us) are becoming disciples of the Lord.

In Evangelization we are tasked to proclaim Jesus Christ. Is there any more powerful way this side of the Parousia than proclaiming Jesus through the Eucharist?

A Church On Fire Because Of Eucharistic Adoration -- IN THE TOWN OF ACUSHNET

This is the story of a Catholic Parish In The North - East United States that is vibrant and alive.

FYI -- THIS IS A CATHOLIC PARISH IN THE STATE OF MASSACHUSETTS. 


A little church in a small town, St. Francis Xavier Catholic Church was facing tough times. The congregation was dwindling, and Mass attendance was at an all-time low. The empty confessional was collecting dust, and donations were dismal.

But then the unthinkable happened.

Today, St. Francis Xavier is one of the most vibrant parishes in the diocese with standing-room only Masses, confessional lines, a busload of parishioners participating in the March for Life, and an abundance of freewill donations that will make them debt-free by April.

“Jesus is on the property,” said Mary Cardoza, the spark that inflamed the parish. “We are a church on fire.”
Brought up in a Catholic family, Mary Cardoza attended Catholic schools.

“I had one foot in the world and one foot in the Church,” she said.

But although she fulfilled her Sunday obligation, she never participated in church activities and often rebelled against the laws of the Church.

“I was always a zombie Catholic,” she said laughing.

When she turned 40, she decided it was time to cultivate a relationship with God.

“You only go to Him when you are in trouble,” she said.

She began meeting with a group for moms after church, who began teaching her about the faith.
It was on a group pilgrimage to the Divine Mercy Chapel in Stockbridge, where she had a life-changing experience. A message board of activities listed “Eucharistic Adoration”.

“What’s Adoration?” she asked the group. “Jesus is really in the Eucharist,” they answered. “But what do you do?” she asked. “You talk to Him,” they said. “Okay, so I go in there, kneel down and something happens — a spiritual experience. I’m on fire for an hour,′ she said.” I knew without a doubt Jesus was in the Eucharist. He was real. We were connected.”

Back at home, she had no idea what to do with her newfound faith.

After Sunday Mass, her pastor, the Rev. Daniel Lacroix, asked her to attend a Stewardship Committee meeting.

“So I go to this meeting, and it is the most depressing meeting I’ve ever been to,” she said. “They start telling me all the stuff that is wrong — church attendance and collections were down; no one was going to Confession; not many people were attending church activities. I go home and cry.”

But then, she said her prayers were answered with the solution to all that ailed her parish.

“I go back to Father Dan and tell him I have the answer — Adoration,” she said.
Lacroix offered her the use of a little room in the church basement, an exit hall to the elevator, but he had no funds to spare.

Shortly after, Cardoza received a phone call from a neighbor who had a package for her. It contained step-by-step instructions on how to start Adoration in your church.

“Her uncle had mailed it to her 10 years prior,” said Cardoza. “She had kept it until she found out about me.”

The next problem was that they needed kneelers, which cost about $500 each.

She received a call from another friend, who had started up a conversation with a woman wearing a Divine Mercy pin at Dunkin Donuts. When her friend mentioned that her church needed kneelers, the lady gave her a number to call.

“I called the number, and the Franciscans Sisters of the Immaculate in Fairhaven told me to pick up four kneelers that night,” Cardoza said.

Now, all they needed were adorers.

Cardoza spoke to the parishioners at all the Masses that weekend. She needed adorers to serve one-hour increments from Friday at 9:30 a.m. through Saturday at 3 p.m.

“Personally, I think Adoration is the best kept secret,” she told them. “I give Him all my problems; He gives me answers. I give Him all my fears; He gives me peace beyond any human understanding. I give Him my tears; He gives me joy. If you’re looking for a place to refuel with God’s graces to get through another hectic week, then Adoration is the place to be.”

Fifty people signed up.

In 2008, Lacroix was assigned to a parish on Cape Cod, and the Rev. Monsignor Gerard P. O’Connor became pastor of St. Francis Xavier’s.

“Monsignor looked at me and said, ‘Adoration in an exit hall? Put Jesus in the church,’” recalled Cardoza. “He loves Jesus with his whole heart and soul, and he loves his people. He puts Eucharist first and makes it the center, which brought the people back. As soon as he put Jesus in the church, Adoration exploded.”

Parishioner Susan Charbonneau knew something was missing in her life. She had been divorced for 10 years and was often distracted when she prayed at home.

Her friend asked her to cover her Friday Adoration hour at 5 p.m.

Charbonneau’s first prayer before the Blessed Sacrament was “I don’t love you. I’m sorry that I don’t really love you.”

Growing up in a strict Portuguese Catholic family, Charbonneau attended Mass every Sunday, observed all the religious holidays, and the family prayed the rosary together every night.

“I was dragged to Confession regularly, but I never had a personal relationship with Jesus,” she said. “I knew of Him, I knew about Him, but I didn’t know Him. I didn’t love Him because you can’t love someone you don’t know.”

Sitting in the last pew in the church, she said she was bored out of her mind and spent most of the time looking at her watch.

Her second visit to Adoration was a few weeks later, and it was much the same.

“I didn’t pray,” she said.

A couple of weeks later Cardoza asked her to become an adorer. Caught off guard, she reluctantly agreed.

Then came the Saturday morning at an especially low point in her life that she found herself kneeling and looking at the Blessed Sacrament. She also eventually made it to Confession, which she said was an extremely important part of her journey.

“Adoration has improved every aspect of my life, one of which is that my marriage has been restored,” said Charbonneau. “I’m no longer in a state of constant worry about situations I have no control over. I don’t know what the future holds, but I find great comfort in knowing the One who does.”

Forty years ago Stephen Watts returned from the Vietnam War and married his wife Jeannine at St. Francis Xavier Church. A non-practicing Methodist who had never been baptized, he made a promise to God that he would raise his children in the Catholic faith. Year after year, his family went to church without him.

After 21 years working for the electric company, Watts retired.

“My kids had grown up and moved out, and me and my wife were drifting apart,” he said.

One Sunday he asked his wife to bring home a bulletin from church, and he noticed the RCIA (Rite of Christian Initiation for Adults) program. Intrigued, he signed up for classes.

“I was a sponge,” he said, absorbing as much information as he could. With the guidance of Lacroix, who was pastor at the time, Watts made the decision to become a Catholic.

On the day he received all his sacraments — Baptism, First Communion and Confirmation — Watts said that he experienced a miracle.

“As I bent over the font to be baptized, I felt the Holy Spirit, like a wind, rush over my back and neck and across the water,” he said. “When I looked down at the water in the font, I saw the water ripple. I not only felt but heard the Holy Spirit, who sounded like a breath in my ear.”

Watts is now the captain of Tuesday Adoration.

“I do see a difference,” he said of his relationship with God after spending time in Adoration. “I believe I was wavering in some of my beliefs, but now I can focus more clearly. This one hour is really not enough time. So I try and make it my best hour spent with Him.”

Parishioner Tony Pimentel had been serving as an adorer for five months, but when he sat in front of the Blessed Sacrament every week, a guilty conscience plagued him. He had not been to Confession in 26 years.

“I knew that despite basically being a good person, I was hanging on to years of compounding sins and making new ones all the time,” he said.

Pimentel was raised in a Catholic family and had attended Catholic school.

“I believe in God and Jesus, and I went to Mass; but I had a superficial faith.”
He said that he was frightened to go to Confession because of the judgment of the priest.

When Pimentel finally entered the confessional, he said he expected admonishment, but instead the priest began with a prayer of thanksgiving to God for bringing him back home.

Pimentel had brought a document with him that he downloaded from the Internet entitled “Steps to Making a Good Confession”.

They spent 30 minutes together.

“When my Confession was over, I exhaled an exhale I had not felt for as long as I could remember,” he said. “I felt as light as a feather, as though all those sins I had been holding on to for all of those years had been removed in one fell swoop. I thought I would be excommunicated from the Church.

But I couldn’t have been more wrong. Hadn’t I been listening? I mean, Jesus’ whole ministry was centered on the forgiveness of sins.”

Currently, St. Francis Xavier offers 54 hours of Adoration every week. There are 70 adorers and 21 substitute adorers. The Adoration schedule is Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday, 9:30 a.m. to 6:30 p.m., followed by Benediction and Evening Prayer; and Friday at 9:30 a.m. through Saturday at 3 p.m.

Everyone is welcome.

The Catholic Church In Uzbekistan

FYI -- Uzbekistan is a Former Soviet Republic in the heart of Central Asia.

It is now an Independent Country. It has possibly the smallest Catholic Community in the world.

The City of Tashkent is the Capital Of Uzbekistan.

Here are some articles for your perusal.

1) Easter draws non-believers to the Church, says bishop of Tashkent

http://www.asianews.it/news-en/Easter-draws-non-believers-to-the-Church,-says-bishop-of-Tashkent-33984.html


2) Easter in Uzbekistan: newly baptized and a vigil in four languages

http://www.asianews.it/news-en/Easter-in-Uzbekistan:-newly-baptized-and-a-vigil-in-four-languages-37079.html


3)  Uzbek Church serves everyone, hopes for the arrival of new priests

http://www.asianews.it/news-en/Uzbek-Church-serves-everyone,-hopes-for-the-arrival-of-new-priests-45844.html

7 Ways To Honor The Sacred Heart Of Jesus

At the very center of Christianity is love. 

Love is the whole message, the whole law. Now, I don’t mean love in the sense of quickly passing infatuation or sexual attraction, two mistaken definitions of our confused culture, but rather sacrificial self-giving. 

In its essence, love is nothing more than laying down your life for the good of another.

The deeper we grow in the Catholic and Apostolic faith, the more we realize that the gospel is centered not so much in our love for God, but in God’s love for us. 

Holy Church has dedicated the month of June to a devotion that is designed to remind us of the depth of God’s passionate love for his creatures: devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus.

In the burning and wounded Sacred Heart, we see that God’s heart is consumed with love for us—so much so that he was willing to suffer and die for us in the most gruesome manner. The Sacred Heart teaches us that true love is always costly, but that it always gives life.

There is much more that can be said about devotion to the Sacred Heart, but today I want to focus on 7 ways we can honor it.

1. Consecration – In mediating on the Sacred Heart of Jesus, we realize the depth of God’s sacrificial love for us. Jesus gave himself to us completely on the Cross to prove his love for us, and he continues to do so every day in the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass. 

When we receive the Eucharist, we receive the very heart of Christ.

 Yes, Jesus gives us his heart again and again, and the only reasonable thing to do is to give our hearts to him in return. One beautiful way to do this is by consecrating ourselves to the most Sacred Heart of Jesus.

2. Enthronement – An important aspect of devotion to the Sacred Heart is recognizing and submitting to the authority of Jesus Christ in every aspect of our lives. Jesus is truly a king—the king of the Church, of our families, and of society in general. The tradition of enthroning the Sacred Heart is an excellent way to express this kingship of Christ.

In this ceremony, a blessed image of the Sacred Heart is placed prominently in our homes, reminding us that Jesus is our king, and that we should love and serve him with our whole hearts.

3. Reparation – The name of Jesus is regularly blasphemed and abused in media, literature, and every day conversation. Each time this happens, the heart of Christ is wounded again by the rejection of his creatures. One way we can show love to the Sacred Heart is by making acts of reparation for the abuse that Jesus receives.


4. First Fridays – When our Lord appeared to St. Margaret Mary and revealed the devotion to the Sacred Heart, he requested the practice of attending mass, going to confession, and receiving him in the Eucharist on the first Friday of 9 consecutive months. This devotion is important because we remember the passion and death of our Lord on Friday. It is essentially a novena that reminds us of the love of Jesus for us, and instills in us a desire to imitate his sacrificial love.

Of course, we are all busy, and it can be difficult to remember the first Friday devotion. But we must do it out of love for the Sacred Heart.

5. Frequent Prayer – Prayer is the breath of the spiritual life and the primary way we grow in love for God and neighbor. Calling frequently on the Sacred Heart is an excellent way to pray, since doing so is an appeal to the love and mercy of Jesus. Prayer to the sacred heart can be as lengthy as a novena or litany, or as simple as a spontaneous, “Sacred heart of Jesus, have mercy on us.”

6. Imitation – Devotion to the Sacred Heart is designed to inspire imitation. We can say all the right prayers and even practice the first Friday devotion faithfully, but if we aren’t imitating the self-giving, sacrificial love of Jesus, we aren’t truly devoted to his heart. Of course, imitating the Sacred Heart starts with giving love to Christ and being ready to sacrifice for his sake. But it also involves loving those we encounter every day—including those we don’t particularly like.  It means loving and forgiving our enemies and those who persecute us. It means laying our life down for others.

7. Missionary activity – Finally, loving the Sacred Heart of Jesus means bringing its love to others. It means sharing our faith with those who may have fallen away from it, or who might have never heard of the fact that Christ lovingly gives himself to us, body and soul, in the Eucharist. It means bearing witness to the fact the Jesus is our king whom we serve sacrificially. And it means bearing our crosses lovingly and patiently.

Conclusion: 

 Devotion to the Sacred Heart has waned in recent years, but I encourage all of you to learn more about this beautiful devotion, and to grow in your love for the burning heart of Jesus. It is only when we learn to imitate the true, costly, and sacrificial love of the Sacred Heart that we will discover our vocation as men.

 Credits : The Catholic Gentleman 

The Catholic Church in Kazakhstan

The Catholic community has about 150 thousand faithful; in the territory religious of 20 different nationalities reside, for a total of 120 priests and 130 nuns. 

The event that marked the rebirth of the Church after the Soviet persecution was the apostolic visit of Pope John Paul II in 2001. 

Archbishop of Nur-Sultan: "We look to the future with hope".

Nur-Sultan (AsiaNews) - 

A "small flock" blessed "by the blood and tears of millions of martyrs" of Soviet persecution: this  is how Msgr. Tomash Peta, Archbishop of Nur-Sultan (new name of Astana), describes the Catholic Church of Kazakhstan.

Speaking to AsiaNews he outlines the main characteristics of a young Church, composed of about 150 thousand faithful. A Church "small in number", but lively, active, international and with a strong devotion to Mary. A Church that still prays in Russian, even if the national language is Kazakh. "This year we published the first religious book in Kazakh. The hope - he says - is to be able to translate the missal by the end of 2019".

Bishop Peta is the pastor of the Archdiocese of Santa Maria di Nur-Sultan. The national Church gained freedom after the dissolution of the Soviet Union. In 2003 the Episcopal Conference of Kazakhstan was created, composed of the dioceses of Nur-Sultan, Karaganda (led by Msgr. Adelio Dell'Oro) and of the Holy Trinity of Almaty (led by Mgr. Jose Luis Mumbiela Sierra); in addition, there are the apostolic administrations of Atyrau (governed by Fr Dariusz Buras) and that of the Byzantine rite Catholics in Kazakhstan and Central Asia (led by Fr Vasyl Hovera).

The country enjoys religious freedom: "We can build churches, chapels and monasteries. We invite priests and nuns from all over the world. At the moment, religious of 20 different nationalities reside in the territory, for a total of 120 priests and 130 nuns. The Catholic Church is recognized thanks to an Agreement (a sort of Concordat) between the Holy See and the Republic of Kazakhstan. In the capital there is also the Apostolic Nunciature, with the Nuncio Indian archbishop Francis Assisi Chullikatt ".

Kazakhstan is the ninth largest country in the world, with a population of 18 million inhabitants. The archbishop reports that "70% professes Islam and 20% is Russian Orthodox Christian. 

There is also a small community of Lutherans and many Protestant groups ". The demographic composition "of the Kazakh steppes was marked by forced deportations of the 1930s and 40s. For this reason, after independence  was obtained in 1991, at least four million people emigrated. Of these, 500 thousand Catholics ".

The Catholic Church was marked by an important event: "The pastoral visit of Pope John Paul II in 2001 (22-25 September). It took place 11 days after the attacks against the Twin Towers in New York. The journey showed the world a living Church: at the mass celebrated in Astana there were 40 thousand people. Without exaggerating, I can say that the papal visit opened a new chapter in the history of our Church. From that moment, every three years a Congress of religious representatives of all faiths is held in the capital. "

The pontiff's journey was also an opportunity to raise the Marian shrine of Our Lady Queen of Peace to the national sanctuary, in the village of Ozyornoye. Here, “next to the great Cross erected at the top of the hill, the youth gathering has been held since 1999. The meeting is very important because it offers them the opportunity to deepen the Christian faith and reflect on their future, on marriage and the family ". On the cross is an inscription, in memory of the victims of communist repression: "To God - honor. To men - peace. To the martyrs - the Kingdom of heaven. To the people of Kazakhstan - gratitude ".

Since 2014, the village of Ozyornoye has also hosted an altar for worship, named "The Star of Kazakhstan". It reflects one of the main characteristics of the Catholic community: the strong Eucharistic adoration and in particular devotion to the Virgin Mary.

Msgr. Peta reports: "In the years of Soviet domination, when Catholics were forced to live without churches, priests and sacraments, Catholics created a sort of eighth sacrament: that of the prayer of the Rosary. The reason is that the only thing they could do during the persecutions was to baptize their children and pray the Rosary. In some ways, the Rosary has replaced the lack of the shepherds ". Today, he concludes, "Kazakhstan is a blessed country, perhaps thanks to that blood and those tears of millions of martyrs. We thank the Lord and look to the future with hope ".

Credits : Asia News June 27, 2019