Central Asian Church comes of age

The Catholic Bishops' Conference of Central Asia, constituted in April 2022, covers the bishops in Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, and Uzbekistan, and the heads of Catholic structures of Tajikistan and Turkmenistan, which were part of the former USSR. Besides, the new conference also includes Ulaanbaatar, the lone diocese in Mongolia. Bishop José Luís Mumbiela Sierra, the president of the newly constituted conference, describes the roots of Christianity in the region and the character of Catholicism in Kazakhstan.