Ulaan Baatar (AsiaNews) – Since May 1st, the Assumption of Our Lady's Church in Ulaan Baatar has a new tool for evangelisation in Mongolia.

Groups of Korean Catholics living in the landlocked country have set up two Legio Mariae presidia—the Legio Mariae or the Legion of Mary is an association of lay people devoted to prayer, charity work and evangelisation funded in 1921 by Irishman Frank Duff.

The ceremony establishing the Legio Mariae in Mongolia took place at the Korean community's 6 pm mass. And the presidia took the names of 'See of the Wisdom' for men and 'Our Lady of good council' for women. The first historic meeting took place right after mass.

Wenceslao Padilla, the Apostolic Prefect of Mongolia, encouraged the participants and said: "I am very happy for the establishment of men and women's presidia in the Church of Mongolia. This is a sign of your apostolic zeal and desire to deepen your own Christian life and to serve others without rest."

During the ceremony instituting the Legio Mariae, the faithful pledged to be faithful to Christian life and commit themselves to evangelisation as a Catholic community in communion with the Apostolic Prefect of Mongolia.

They also decided to bring over a Korean priest and for that reason set up a bank account to raise money.

The Catholic community of Mongolia was born 11 years ago and now has 216 baptised members, plus a large contingent of expatriates and 51 missionaries from eight congregations.

Currently, among the Koreans, who are very involved in the evangelisation of Mongolia, there are two priests from the diocese of Taejeon, some nuns from the Missionaries of Charity, some Sisters of St Paul de Chartres as well as some Little Sisters of de Foucauld.