Mission Report: Kazakhstan: December 2011

Missionary Trip to Kazakhstan—Reported by Dr. Brian Clowes, September 2011

Kazakhstan is the ninth-largest country in the world, nearly four times the size of Texas. It is located between Russia and China, and has only about 15.5 million people, giving it a very sparse population density.

About 47 percent of Kazakhs are Muslim and about 44 percent are Russian Orthodox, with Roman Catholics and Lutherans comprising small minorities. The nation’s total fertility rate is currently about 1.9 children per woman, well below the replacement rate of 2.1. The United Nations says that this will soon decline to a disastrously low 1.3 children per woman.

This is the lethal malady common to all of the former Soviet Socialist Republics. Once an anti-child attitude has been drilled into the minds of the people for three generations, once abortion has become a convenience that people are accustomed to, once they cannot imagine living without it, their country will die unless three generations of intensive pro-natalist education counters the ingrained anti-life mentality.

MALICE IN WONDERLAND

In September, Human Life International’s 18th Asia-Pacific Congress took place in Astana, most of which has been built since it was designated the national capital in 1994. Astana is a beautiful city of the future, and its people are very well-off. But the visiting pro-lifers from 16 different nations felt an almost subliminal undercurrent of uneasiness, brought on by something important that was missing — in this case, small children.

Congress Host, His Excellency Tomash Peta, Archbishop of Astana and President of the Catholic Bishops Conference of Kazakhstan, delivering his homily with the aid of interpreter, Sr. Joanna, Opening Mass, 18th ASPAC, September 2011.

You would think, in an empty nation like Kazakhstan, there would be groups encouraging people to have more children, but exactly the opposite is the case. Family Health International and USAID distribute contraceptives by the ton, and the Population Council actively supports the continued availability of abortion for any reason or no reason at all.

One of the worst features of population control in Kazakhstan is that the abortifacient intrauterine device (IUD) is by far the most popular form of birth control, with over two-thirds of contracepting women using it. The IUD causes a wide range of sometimes lethal health problems and is rarely used in the United States. Apparently, the population controllers think it is fine for the women of poorer nations. This is another of the dozens of examples of “contraceptive imperialism” that is being imposed on people all over the world.

SPEAKING AND NETWORKING, THE LIFEBLOOD OF THE ASPAC

We began the Congress with a beautiful Mass featuring twenty priests, including five bishops. We then moved from the Cathedral of Our Lady of Perpetual Help to the Convention Center, where each of the sixteen national delegations brought their flags up to the stage to the accompaniment of several young ladies in colorful Kazakh traditional dress. Then, Archbishop Tomash Peta, Archbishop of Astana and current Chairman of the Conference of Catholic Bishops of Kazakhstan, welcomed us warmly. In fact, he and three other bishops—Astana Auxiliary Bishop Athanasius Schneider, Bishop Jan Pawel Lenga from Karaganda and Bishop José Luis Mumbiela Sierra of Holy Trinity of Almaty—attended every session over the three-day Congress.

The Papal Nuncio to Kazakhstan, His Excellency Miguel Mauri Buendia, delivering the message of the Holy Father at the 18th ASPAC, Astana, Kazakhstan.

The Kazakh government officially recognized the ASPAC by sending two high-level officials from the ministries of family and inter-faith relations to speak, welcoming the Congress and its participants. We hope that this will lead to pro-life initiatives by the government in the near future.

Ligaya Acosta, HLI’s Regional Coordinator for Asia and Oceania, also welcomed everyone, and Joseph Meaney, HLI’s Director of International Coordination, read a statement from Father Shenan Boquet, the new President of Human Life International. Finally, Archbishop Buendia read a letter from the Holy Father welcoming everyone and highly commending HLI’s work, sending his “vivid encouragement to all those who, personally or collectively, in Asia and Oceania, undertake to serve human life with the light of faith and reason.”

During the three days of the Congress, eleven speakers took the stage and spoke on such varied topics as demographics, the war on unborn baby girls, assisted reproductive technologies and ecumenical pro-life activities. Yuriy Timofeevich Novgorodov, Bishop of the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Kazakhstan, covered this last topic, and his talk was fascinating because it laid out a roadmap for cooperation among the pro-life groups in the country. HLI has operated on these principles for decades, and it was refreshing to know that this bishop was so experienced in pro-life and pro-family organizations that he could speak on them fluently, even with the necessity of an interpreter. He received enthusiastic applause at the conclusion of his presentation.

Archpriest Father Maksim Obukhov of the Russian Orthodox Church spoke on the current and potential activities of the pro-life movement in Eastern Europe, heralding a new Catholic/Orthodox cooperation that has not existed before in Kazakhstan. Demographer Igor Ivanovich Beloborodov, Director of the Institute for Demographic Research in Moscow, spoke of the massive and deadly impacts of anti-natalist programs all around the world. I had a private conversation with Igor, and he described the motorized “March for Life” movement in Russia that has recently expanded to ten cities. We agreed that the potential for HLI’s pro-life mission work in dying Russia is enormous.

HLI’s Joseph Meaney, delivering the message of HLI’s new president, Fr. Shenan Boquet.

After the last talk, the Malaysian delegation and Ligaya Acosta invited everyone to the 19th Asia-Pacific Congress, to be held in Malaysia in 2013. Archbishop Peta gave us a final blessing, and we all walked to the Cathedral courtyard for dinner and a couple of hours of networking and just plain “fellowshipping,” as the Lutherans so appropriately call it. It was indeed edifying to see people from so many countries and so many faiths working and planning together for a pro-life Kazakhstan.

WRAPPING UP THE ASPAC

The closing Mass in the Cathedral was inspiring and most edifying. The Nuncio read another statement commending the work of Kazakh pro-life workers.

Immediately following the ASPAC, Joseph Meaney conducted a full day of pro-life training for all of the priests and religious of the Archdiocese of Astana. Auxiliary Bishop Athanasius Schneider translated all of his talks, which covered the primary anti-life and anti-family threats to the people of Kazakhstan.

If Kazakhstan is to have a future of any kind, its people must reject the anti-life mentality that has gripped their nation for so long and must embrace a true Culture of Life.

Please pray for the people and the leadership of Kazakhstan.

The speakers of the 18th ASPAC (except for Dr. Brian Clowes, who took the picture), with the Bishops of Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan.