ASIA/UZBEKISTAN – First vocation to consecrated life for women in Samarkand
Samarkand (Agenzia Fides) – “Summer is a privileged time for growing faith, and here in Uzbekistan the Lord grants us the grace to carry out a really important work of formation and deepening of spirituality. The year last time, we, the priests of the Institute of the Incarnate Word, had just arrived in Samarkand and we could not organize so many activities because the church and all the parish halls had to be restored; now that we have renovated spaces, we happily want to make them available to all Uzbek Catholic communities. Only part of the summer has passed, but we are already very satisfied with the results achieved so far.” This is what Father Ariel Alvarez Toncovich, priest of the Institute of the Incarnate Word and parish priest of the Church of St. John the Baptist in Samarkand, Uzbekistan, told Agenzia Fides, speaking of the summer pastoral activities dedicated to children and young people in all the parishes of the country of Central Asia. The missionary reports that one of the most beautiful fruits, a work of God’s grace, is the first religious vocation of a young Uzbek girl, who expressed the desire to consecrate herself to God: a “little grain of faith”, he notes, who will be cultivated on the path that has just begun in the Institute of the Incarnate Word, which will lead her to the consecration of life.
Among the pastoral activities, the first pastoral appointment in July, says Father Ariel Alvarez Toncovich, was dedicated to the youngest children: “For five days we welcomed 22 children from Fergana, Bukhara and, of course, from Samarkand. This may seem like a small number compared to other realities, but for the Church of Uzbekistan it is an important achievement. We spent the days taking historical walks in the city, organizing excursions to the mountains and playing gospel-related games. In this way, the children had the opportunity to have fun and learn,” explains the missionary.
Also in July, it was the turn of the young people to meet in the parish of Saint-Jean-Baptiste: “We welcomed 27 young people from all the Uzbek parishes. Once again, notes the missionary, we organized recreational activities , combined with moments of formation, which touched on subjects of interest for the daily life of young people. In addition, we tried to create ideal conditions for young people to come and talk about their problems with us, the priests: many shared with us their anxieties, including professional ones. This is one of the most beautiful fruits of the experience. The five days were characterized by an atmosphere of joy, and the participants said that they lived in ” a spirit of true Catholic Church. This is a comment that made us think a lot.
At that time, the parish of Samarkand hosted a summer oratory for the children of the city: “We have about ten of them, which is a wonderful thing for us, because when we arrived there were only two. They come from families in which some of the grandparents or great-grandparents are Catholic. In some cases, the parents are not baptized, but they want the children to come to us. As a large -Muslim mother, who regularly accompanies her grandchildren to the oratory, the Catholic community is considered a chance to give her children a “rich and open” education.Another grandfather told us that he considered the parish as a healthy environment for her grandson to grow up in. Often these children invite their friends, whom of course we can only welcome if their parents agree and sign an authorization. Many of them, at the request of their family, will be ba ptized and will begin the catechism”.
The greatest fruit of this work, explains Father Toncovich, is the first vocation to the consecrated life in Samarkand: “One of the girls of our parish asked to enter the monastery: she is 21 years old, always comes to Mass and a day she told us about her vocation, saying that she had wanted to consecrate herself to God for four years already, but she did not know how to go about it because the only community of nuns in Uzbekistan is very far from our city A few months ago she joined the congregation of the Institute of the Incarnate Word and began her novitiate. It is a source of great joy for us too because, as John Paul II said, “vocations are a sign of the vitality of parishes”.
At present, the small Uzbek Catholic community, made up of around 3,000 baptized people, has five parishes spread throughout the country: in addition to that of Samarkand, there are around 700 faithful in the capital Tashkent, and others in Bukhara, Urgench and Fergana.
(LF-PA) (Agenzia Fides 6/8/2022)
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ASIA/UZBEKISTAN – First vocation to consecrated life for women in Samarkand