SW News: Catholic prelates of Central Asian nations have elected a Spanish bishop serving in Kazakhstan as the first president of the newly created Catholic Bishops’ Conference of Central Asia (CBCCA). The bishops elected Monsignor Jose Luis Mumbiela Sierra, 52, as the head of the episcopate during their first plenary assembly in the Kazakh capital Nur Sultan from April 27 to 29. The local ordinary of the Diocese of Holy Trinity in Astana, Bishop Sierra will head the episcopal body for the next four years.

Msgr Jerzy Maculewicz, Apostolic Administrator of Uzbekistan, and Msgr Evgeny Zinkovsky, Auxiliary Bishop of the Diocese of Karaganda in Kazakhstan, were elected as vice president and general secretary of the conference. Sierra was ordained a priest for the diocese of Lleida in Spain on June 25, 1995, and in 1998 he began missionary work in Kazakhstan. On May 8, 2011, the priest was appointed as bishop of the Diocese of Holy Trinity that was created in 2003.

During their four-year term, the new officials and the members of CBCCA will chart out various pastoral programs, initiatives for evangelization and social development works. CBCCA will also undertake the translation and publication of Catholic prayer books and manuals in national languages to "contribute to the spread of the Gospel, to work with young people and families and the implementation of Caritas projects”.

The plenary meeting was attended by bishops and church delegates from Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan and Mongolia. Church leaders from the Vatican and South Korea were also a part of the assembly. Prefect of the Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples Cardinal Luis Antonio Tagle, who is also the President of Caritas Internationalis, virtually attended the plenary assembly from the Vatican.

Cardinal Tagle described the major areas of focus to be undertaken by CBCCA including “the development of friendly relations with other religions, especially Muslim-Christian dialogue, the training of priests, nuns and laity who carry out catechesis in parishes”.

The CBCCA was formed on September 8, 2021, to promote cooperation among the bishops of Central Asia and sort out local issues. Kazakhstan, a former Soviet Republic, has 250,000 Catholics who are mostly of Polish, German and Lithuanian descent. Their families arrived in the Muslim-majority nation after being deported under the Soviet regime during World War II. As per the World Atlas report, Roman Catholics make up about 1.7% percent of the country’s population.