Pope Francis cheers at the participants as he arrives with Apostolic Prefect to Ulaanbaatar Cardinal Giorgio Marengo (right) to preside over a mass at the Steppe Arena in the Mongolian capital Ulaanbaatar, Sunday, Sept. 3, 2023. Francis is in Mongolia to minister to one of the world's smallest and newest Catholic communities. Neighboring China's crackdown on religious minorities has been a constant backdrop to the trip, even as the Vatican hopes to focus attention instead on Mongolia and its 1,450 Catholics. - AP
ULAANBAATAR (Reuters): Pope Francis on Sunday sent greetings to China, calling its citizens a "noble" people and asking Catholics in China to be "good Christians and good citizens".
Francis made the unscripted comments at the end of Mass, calling up the former and current archbishops of Hong Kong, Cardinal John Tong Hon and Archbishop Stephen Chow, to flank him as he spoke.
