It’s been about a month since Cardinal Giorgio Marengo was in Canada, where he visited and celebrated the Eucharist at Toronto's St. Andrew’s Parish, in thanks of a longstanding relationship between the west end parish and Marengo's home base of Mongolia.

Amidst a constantly hectic schedule, rife with spiritual responsibilities and extensive travelling, Marengo managed to find time to share his thanks for the parish’s warm welcome on Canadian soil. 

“ I've been very much enriched by the recent encounter when I passed through Toronto. It has been a great blessing, as now our relationship is even deeper. It was beautiful to celebrate the Holy Mass together and spend some time together for moments of communal sharing,” he said.

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“I have been very moved by their generosity and attention, and  I felt from that that there is now a deeper bond of communion, friendship and collaboration between St. Andrew's Parish and our ongoing mission.” 

It was a long journey for the Cardinal, whose current mission is that of Apostolic Prefect of Ulaanbaatar, a missionary jurisdiction covering all of Mongolia. As told by the Cardinal himself, St. Andrew’s has long shown support, animated by Consolata Missionaries, for the Mongolia mission, even before it was in his trust. 

It’s been more than 20 years since Marengo arrived in Mongolia as a young Italian Consolata Missionary, where he helped to plant the first Catholic parish in the town of Arvaikheer. 

It was there, in the central Mongolian town of no more than 25,000, that he worked toward fulfilling his religious society’s mission of first evangelization in a place where the Church was largely unknown and absent. For him, the experience has marked one of his life’s turning points, and is a reality that continues to impact his current ministry. 

“ (In Arvaikheer) I have experienced what it means to be at the service of the Church in a place where it is not known, and was not even present at that time when we arrived there. Experiencing daily the beauty as well as the challenging side of sharing our faith with people coming from other traditions, who had never had the chance before to come in contact with the Church and the Gospel message, has been shaping the part of the ministry I'm now offering to the Church,” he told The Catholic Register. 

Marengo was named cardinal by Pope Francis in 2022 at age 48, making him one of the youngest members of the College of Cardinals, second only to Cardinal Mykola Bychok of the Ukrainian Catholic Eparchy of Sts. Peter and Paul of Melbourne, Australia. From that point, Marengo’s missionary work in a remote corner of the planet, where only approximately two per cent of the population is Christian, became even more relevant. 

“ After the initial surprise and relative shock at the news of my appointment as cardinal, I tried to continue offering the service I was already performing: seeking to deepen and consolidate it while increasing my prayers and efforts to honour this office and place it at the surface of the Universal Church,” he said. 

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However, growing the Gospel in an area where it was relatively unknown, even just a few short years ago, is not a mission without its challenges. 

“ The reality of the Church in Mongolia is comparable to the one described in the Acts of the Apostles when a first community of believers was established through the witness, preaching and the work of the Apostles,” he said. 

Marengo said most members of the Catholic communities in the Mongolian Church are first-generation Christians, explaining the wonderful experience he facilitates as he accompanies them throughout their new faith journeys.

Regarding the openness to consider the call to consecrate oneself in the priestly life or religious life, Marengo believes it comes down to a day-by-day deepening of a personal relationship with Jesus Christ. 

“This has fostered the life of prayer in families and in individuals so that the seed of the divine call to follow Christ in that particular way may be received and welcomed and bear fruit,” he said. “Our attention is especially oriented to providing a good spiritual life so that by being attuned with the Holy Spirit, young men and women may also be more attentive to the calling of the Lord.” 

Buddhism is the overwhelmingly dominant religion in Mongolia, adhered to by just over half of the entire country’s population. Interreligious dialogue with the Buddhist majority is a daily reality for Mongolian Catholics and Marengo, as well as a historic priority for the Church in Mongolia as a whole.   

Marengo shared that regular participation in Buddhist–Christian colloquia meetings has occurred, with Mongolian Buddhist delegations having met Pope Francis in May 2022 and this past January, before recently meeting Pope Leo XIV in October. These were “truly important in our mutual understanding and in building bridges of collaboration,” voicing his hopes that local and international meetings will open up other initiatives, such as in Ulaanbaatar’s Catholic-run shelter for the homeless under the “House of Mercy” project. 

Through its connection with St. Andrew's, the Church in Mongolia hopes for many other parishes around the world to spark a similar spiritual and resourceful collaboration. 

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“ My deepest desire and prayer is that together, the local Catholics here in Mongolia and foreign missionaries, may increase the depth of being missionary disciples of the Lord. I long for a local community that shows signs of great faith, determined by the charity and concrete hope of a mature community that keeps the freshness of this encounter with Christ,” he said. 

“I also believe that an important step in fulfilling this dream is to grow in spiritual life; therefore, we also have a dream of establishing a Catholic contemplative monastery in Mongolia, when God will allow that and when the conditions will be ready for that.”