September 1, 2023

A daily news briefing from Catholic News Agency, powered by artificial intelligence. Ask your smart speaker to play “Catholic News,” or listen every morning wherever you get podcasts. www.catholicnewsagency.com - Pope Francis made history Friday morning when he became the first pope to travel to Mongolia, the world’s most sparsely populated sovereign country. The papal plane touched down in the Mongolian capital of Ulaanbaatar on September 1. As Pope Francis descended the stairs of the plane at “Chinggis Khaan” International Airport, he was welcomed by the Asian country’s foreign minister and a young woman who offered the pope a cup of traditional Mongolian dried curds. Pope Francis told journalists aboard the chartered ITA Airways plane that to visit Mongolia is to encounter “a small people, but a big culture.” Roughly the size of Alaska, Mongolia has five people per square mile. About 30% of its population is nomadic or semi-nomadic. https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/255252/pope-francis-becomes-first-pope-in-history-to-set-foot-in-mongolia Pope Francis’ prayer intention for the month of September is for people living on the margins. “A homeless person who dies on the street will never appear among the top stories of search engines or newscasts,” the pope said in a video released August 29. The Holy Father asked: “How could we have reached this level of indifference?” He goes on to ask how we as a society have allowed the “throwaway culture” to “dominate our lives, our cities, our way of life?” The pope urged the faithful to “stop making invisible those who are on the margins of society, whether it’s due to poverty, addictions, mental illness, or disability” and instead “focus on accepting them, on welcoming all people who need it.” He concluded with a prayer: “Let us pray for those people on the margins of society in subhuman living conditions, that they may not be neglected by institutions and never be cast out.” https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/255239/this-is-pope-francis-prayer-intention