Rome Newsroom, Apr 8, 2024 / 07:00 am
During Easter Week, April 2-3, the Apostolic Administration of Kyrgyzstan convened a two-day meeting in the capital of Bishkek dedicated to prayer, sharing, and the work of evangelization within the small yet budding Catholic community spread throughout the Central Asian country.
“It is such a great consolation to all of us to be a part of this universal Church with so many members across the world,” said Father Anthony Corcoran, SJ, apostolic administrator of Kyrgyzstan, in an interview with CNA. “But it is also a grace to be here in such a small community.”
In a predominantly Muslim country, Catholics in Kyrgyzstan account for less than 0.01% of the population of 6.7 million people. Currently, there are several hundred Catholics in the country belonging to either the Roman or Byzantine rite.
Though Catholics have been present in Kyrgyzstan since the 14th century, Corcoran said the “founding members” of the Church communities — spread across three parishes in the cities of Bishkek, Talas, and Jalalabad — are descendants of German, Polish, and other ethnically European families deported to Central Asia during World War II under the Russian communist regime of Joseph Stalin.