Their number grew further during the religious persecution of Joseph Stalin, who during the Soviet era sent hundreds of thousands of Christians to labor camps in the 30s and 40s. The presence of Christianity in Kazakhstan grew in the 19th century, as high numbers of Poles, Belarussians, Ukrainians, and Russians were deported there by Russian tsars. Roughly 70% of Kazaks are Muslim, and about 26% are Christian, many of whom belong to the Russian Orthodox and Greek Catholic traditions. Kazakhstan is one of the largest countries in Central Asia, with a population of 19 million composed of around 150 ethnic groups. He thanked the congress organizers and asked the faithful to pray for him during “this pilgrimage of dialogue and peace.” In his Sunday Angelus address, Pope Francis spoke of his visit to Kazakhstan, saying it would be an opportunity “to meet many religious representatives and to dialogue among brothers, animated by the common desire for peace, peace of which our world thirsts.” Given the geopolitical backdrop against which the pope’s visit is taking place, peace and fraternal dialogue will likely be key themes underpinning many of his messages and speeches. The event customarily takes place in Nur-Sultan’s Palace of Peace however, this year, 108 delegations will be present, and due to the high number of participants, the congress has been moved to the Palace of Independence to accommodate the larger numbers. The Vatican delegation to the congress, which is usually led by the president of Kazakhstan’s senate, is typically always led by a cardinal however, this year, it will be Pope Francis. It will mark his 38th foreign trip since taking office in March 2013. 13-15 to participate in the congress and meet with other faith leaders who are present and with members of the country’s small Catholic community. ![]() Some seven million people are believed to be internally displaced by fighting, while an estimated five million have fled to neighboring countries while bombs continue to ravage their homes and cities. 24 invasion of Ukraine, has so far caused around 12 million people to flee their homes and has claimed thousands of civilian lives, including those of children. The war, which erupted after Russia’s Feb. Pope Francis, who is poised to arrive in Kazakhstan on Tuesday for the seventh edition of the congress, finds himself in a similar situation of regional instability and uncertainty, as the country is in many ways caught in the middle of the Ukraine-Russia war, the region’s most violent conflict since World War II. Two years later, in 2003, the first Congress of Leaders of World and Traditional Religions was launched by former President Nursultan Abishuly Nazarbayev - a Soviet and Kazakh politician who served as the first president of Kazakhstan from its independence in 1991 until his formal resignation in 2019 - in an effort to foster stronger ties among Kazakhstan’s different religious communities and to shed light on the unique inter-religious history of the country. In his speeches and homilies throughout the visit, John Paul II offered encouragement to those still disillusioned by the breakup of the Soviet Union, and he also sent a clear message of tolerance, praising the central Asian nation as a place of harmony where different religious professions were able to work together in building a world without violence. ![]() Bush declared his global “War on Terror,” which Pope John Paul II had tried to prevent and which heightened the prospect of a further escalation of geopolitical and interfaith tensions.Īt the time, Kazakh citizens were still grappling with how to craft a new society in the post-Soviet era, and tensions with Islam were at an all-time high in the majority-Muslim nation, where Christians are a small minority. 11 terrorist attacks in the United States that leveled the Twin Towers and claimed thousands of American lives. ![]() When Pope John Paul II visited Kazakhstan in 2001, it was just 10 years after the country gained independence amid the dissolution of the Soviet Union and roughly 10 days after the Sept. ROME (Crux) - Popes seem to have a habit of visiting Kazakhstan amid major crises and conflicts that risk fracturing regional stability and splintering its diverse religious and ethnic communities, and Pope Francis’ visit this week is no exception.
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