Free Republic

ROME — Pope Francis has blamed Mongolia’s current cold spell on global warming, insisting the overheating environment is a “global social problem.” Following his weekly Angelus address Sunday, the pontiff said he is close to the population of Mongolia, “affected by a wave of intense cold, which is causing serious humanitarian consequences.” This extreme phenomenon, which has occasioned the death of over 600,000 livestock, is “a sign of climate change and its effects,” the pope told the estimated 20,000 gathered in Saint Peter’s Square.

Aleteia: You were ordained a priest in Mongolia on August 28, 2016, which makes you the first indigenous priest for almost 1000 years! How do you feel about the historical significance of this?  Joseph Enkhee-Baatar: I am just glad and honored to have been chosen to be ordained here in Mongolia, and to be a small part of the mission. The first missionaries who came to the Mongol Empire were Nestorians. They came as early as the 7th and 8th century. Consequently, several Mongol tribes converted to Christianity. Then, in the thirteenth century under the Yuan dynasty, the first Catholic missionaries arrived. According to some historical...

Members of the Mongolian neo-Nazi group Tsagaan Khass stand near a quarry where they questioned a worker. A Mongolian neo-Nazi group has rebranded itself as an environmentalist organisation fighting pollution by foreign-owned mines, seeking legitimacy as it sends swastika-wearing members to check mining permits. Based in an office behind a lingerie store in the Mongolian capital, the shaven-headed, jackbooted Tsagaan Khass stormtroopers launch raids on mining projects, demanding paperwork or soil samples to be studied for contaminants. "Before, we used to work in a harsh way, like breaking down doors," the group's leader, Ariunbold Altankhuum, 40, told Reuters. "But now,...

Mural of Genghis Khan's funeral found Dec. 26, 2006 at 12:09PM A painting of a Mongolian funeral ceremony in the Arjai caves in North China's Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region might depict Genghis Khan's funeral. The mural in one of the caves at the Arjai Grotto is about 20 inches long and 14 inches wide, the Xinhua News Agency reported Tuesday. The painting depicts a Mongolian funeral where a man is held above a funeral pit by white cranes, said Pan Zhaodong, a researcher from the Social Science Academy of the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region. One well-dressed onlooker could very well...

ULAANBAATAR, Mongolia, Oct. 22, 2005 – A group of almost 200 Mongolian Army soldiers got a personal thank you today from U.S. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld for their service in Iraq and Afghanistan. Rumsfeld, who made a stop here during an eight-day trip to China, South Korea and Lithuania, praised Mongolia for its support in the war on terror. "You are a sovereign nation and you made a choice," Rumsfeld told the group, assembled in an auditorium in Mongolia's Government House. "It showed political courage and it showed personal courage on the part of your troops." But that decision, he...

Poor ships saved Japan from Mongolian army PARIS: Science has dealt a blow to a Japanese legend which says the country was twice saved from a Mongolian fleet thanks to a “divine wind,” or kamikaze, that destroyed the invaders' ships. A 900-ship fleet, sent by the Mongolian emperor Kublai Khan in 1274, met resistance from Japanese samurai before being forced into retreat by bad weather and was then ripped to pieces by the kamikaze. Kublai Khan tried again years later, amassing a vast fleet of 4,400 ships from China and Korea, most of which were sunk by strong winds off...