Missionary Trip to KAZAKHSTAN — Reported by Dr. Ligaya A. Acosta, September 16-28, 2009.

Kazakhstan is a vast landlocked country in Central Asia, surrounded by the countries of Russia, China, Kyrgyztan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan.  It was formerly the largest state of the Soviet Republics and obtained its independence only in 1991.  Kazakhstan is one of the world’s most sparsely populated countries with a population density of a mere 14 persons per square mile.  And even with so much oil and gas and valuable minerals, there are still many poor people in Kazakhstan — clearly the targets of death peddlers.  The country is thus a perfect example to counter the lie of population controllers who say that fewer people means an improved quality of life.

Even with the glaring scarcity in population, contraception and abortion are still widely promoted, plunging the Total Fertility Rate to a dying 1.88. Worsened by a high infant mortality rate and an estimated 12,000 people currently living with HIV/AIDS, it is a miracle that Kazakhstan can replace its population without migrants.  The country thus needs HLI to help them build a culture of life, and I was overjoyed with the very positive response I received.

Even before I reached Kazakhstan, reading through the many materials I had on the country, I knew for certain that it is besieged by the culture of death.  Many international death peddlers, led by the International Planned Parenthood Federation, working through its full member, the Kazakhstan Association of Sexual and Reproductive Health (KMPA), have long been actively operating in the country with the help of a large amount of foreign funds! UNFPA, USAID, UNICEF, WHO and other wealthy international foundations, as well as foreign governments like Germany and the Netherlands, have poured so much money and contraceptive supplies into the country, with the killer IUD topping the list!  But, alas, neither IUD nor pills nor condoms nor abortions ever improve anyone’s quality of life. Finding many households and villages with no potable water, my heart cried knowing the mind-boggling amount of money that has flowed through the country for sex education, contraception and abortion!

Sex education has been successfully integrated into school curricula, started by the Kazakhstan School of Public Health, which first developed the institution-based training curriculum for Reproductive Health.  Thus, promiscuity, even among young people, is common and backed by contraception and abortion.  Until HLI came, many people were unaware of the horrible side-effects of these practices, as well as the global anti-life agenda.  Kazakhstan may have gained independence from the communists, but it has remained a colony of the culture of death! 

Traveling with the Archbishop

In all, I delivered nine talks in different venues, speaking to 569 people: youth, Catholic church parishioners, nuns, and priests.  Interestingly, in Astana, where the Archbishop asked me to give a talk during the two Sunday Masses in the main Cathedral, some of the attendees were people from the “other side.” A young lady working with a UN agency told me how touched she was and expressed to me and the sisters that she wanted to get involved in pro-life work! An executive from the Asian Development Bank wished me “luck.”

 I was very blessed to travel long distances with my host, the very kind and Holy Archbishop of Astana, His Excellency, Tomash Peta, who is also President of the Catholic Bishops Conference of Kazakhstan. We traveled more than 1,000 very rural kilometers (622 miles) to and from the far-away city of Petropavlovsk, where I gave a one-day talk at the annual gathering of nuns from all over the huge Diocese of Astana.  On the way, we stopped by several parishes, where we talked with priests and nuns. 

My talk was an eye-opener for the nuns. Even the Archbishop remarked afterwards, “the church should do something about this!” The colorful slides and combination of theological and scientific facts so moved them that the Archbishop declared a meeting following my presentation for further discussion and planning.  Among the next steps agreed upon were: translation of my slides into Russian, sharing the slides with constituents of the priests and nuns, praying the St. Michael the Archangel prayer, and arranging another visit from HLI to speak at universities and conduct a more thorough pro-life training session to include Natural Family Planning (NFP).  They also expressed much interest for the ASPAC (annual Asia-Pacific Congress on Faith, Life, and Family) in Kazakhstan.  (The 18th ASPAC will be held in the country in 2011.)

One young nun privately told me how touched she was with my presentations.  She shared that her mother is a doctor who used to perform many abortions!  She said people are ignorant of the facts and do not realize that when they abort they are killing a living human being.  She added that my slides showing colored pictures of fetal development, as well as aborted babies, are powerful, and she asked for a copy of the slides and for videos that could be distributed to the universities to spread the truth. But first, she offered to translate the materials into Russian.

Almost all of the sisters wanted to talk to me, but only few could speak English; the rest spoke either Russian or Polish.  But through my great interpreter, Sister Joanna of the Missionaries of Charity, we were able to communicate.  Some of them asked about in-vitro fertilization, which they didn’t realize kills many unborn children.  One also shared that she now understands why, when the sisters requested medicine from UNICEF for a sick baby, they were given boxes of condoms instead! These sisters work all over the diocese and are on the frontline evangelizing the people. They are powerful instruments proclaiming the Gospel of Life. 

Strengthening Catholics for Life

Fulfilling the desire of my heart, God also made a way for me to be able to give a talk in the Diocese of Karaganda.  The Sisters of the Missionaries of Charity, who had been attending my talks, felt the need to have me speak with their youth wards in their house in Temirtau.  What was initially planned to be a small gathering became an audience of about 100, consisting of young people from the city of Karaganda, parishioners, nuns, priests, the Rector and all seminarians of the only seminary in the Diocese.  The Auxiliary Bishop of Karaganda, His Excellency, Most Rev. Athanasius Schneider, also came. I met Bishop Schneider with the Archbishop of Karaganda, Mons. Jan Pawel Lenga, and Archbishop Peta, during the meeting of the Federation of Asian Bishops Conference, held in the city of Manila in my home country, the Philippines, in August 2009.  Thus, when he was informed that the Sisters of Mother Teresa were hosting my talk, the good Bishop, at very short notice, mandated all the priests and seminarians to attend and to send a delegation of young people from the diocese! 

The visit also gained for HLI more prayer warriors in the many holy priests and nuns who, after hearing my talks, realized the urgency and danger of the mission.  Because perpetual adoration is a way of life for the religious and parishioners of the Catholic Church of Kazakhstan, I know that they will include us in their many prayers. 

Bathing in the Blood of Martyrs

I was also blessed to stay for a night in a convent of four cloistered Carmelite Sisters who, even when we were separated by wooden barricades, intently listened to my mini-talk.  One of them, a Russian sister, who could not speak English very well but could understand it, served as my interpreter. I not only asked them to pray for HLI’s pro-life missionaries around the world, but also for our many benefactors, without whom we would not be able to carry out the mission.  Before I left, they gifted me with a statue of St. Therese, the patron saint of missions.

I was also very blessed to make a pilgrimage for HLI to the Holy Cross, set up by the Bishop, in a rare hill in the village of Oziornoje, which he said is located exactly in the middle of Fatima and Hiroshima. This gives us a choice, he said,  between life and death, blessing and curse!  I also was privileged to visit and pray at the National Shrine of “Our Queen of Peace” and at a place near a lake where “Our Lady of the Fish” stands.  I was told that once, in a time of famine, the lake suddenly teemed with fish, which the people attributed to Our Lady.  Even non-Catholics here have a devotion to the Blessed Mother!

Indeed, my very blissful trip to Kazakhstan was another mission won for God’s glory.  As always, there is joy in the splendor of truth, and people only need to hear the Gospel of Life for them to realize the evils of the culture of death and resolve to build a culture of life.  Everyone looks forward to the realization of the ASPAC here, where the Archbishop anticipates the attendance of no less than the President of the country and the involvement of the Catholic Bishops Conference of Kazakhstan, which he leads.

Fulfilling the mission of HLI in Kazakhstan, with such virtuous and faithful bishops, priests, nuns and lay people has given me overwhelming happiness and hope in the Church.  The people of this region have bathed in the blood of martyrs, who died for the faith during the long years of Communist persecution. God, with Our Lady, must indeed be smiling from heaven at this country, whose predominantly Muslim population welcomed with so much love our beloved Pope John Paul II.  But, I’m sure heaven would rejoice ever more if they would stop killing their babies!