KATHMANDU (UCAN) -- There is only one Catholic church in Kyrgyzstan, but a missioner reports the local Church is alive in village communities of up to 30 Catholics spread across the Central Asian country.

The Catholic Church structure there is a "missio sui juris," or self-governing mission, created in 1997 and entrusted to the Jesuits.

According to Jesuit Father Paul Chemparathy, a missioner based in the predominantly Muslim country since 2002, "We have only one church, in Bishkek -- the rest (of the Church) is just communities."

The 55-year-old Indian priest, a former missioner in Nepal, spoke to UCA News on a recent visit to Kathmandu.

He explained that the church in the capital is a remodeled house where about 30 Catholics gather for Mass every evening and 200 on the weekend, most of them women. Outside Bishkek "there are 25 unofficial mission stations with a maximum of 30 Catholics each." He added that some of the communities are larger than this because they include people who are not Catholics.

In the communities near Bishkek, priests regularly celebrate Mass and teach catechism in private residences, Father Chemparathy said.

Available information puts Kyrgyzstan's population at about 5 million people, 75 percent of them Muslims and close to 20 percent Russian Orthodox.

Most local Catholics are ethnic Germans or Poles whose families survived persecution of religious followers in the 1920s and 1930s under Soviet leader Joseph Stalin. Kyrgyzstan was under Soviet control until it gained independence with the breakup of the Soviet Union in 1991.

Father Chemparathy calls these groups "the main store of Catholic faith," especially the "babuskhi," grandmothers, "who kept the Catholic faith alive."

Ethnic Koreans are the third-largest Catholic group, the priest said. Their families were driven out of the southeastern part of the former Soviet Union in 1937 by Stalin.

Four Jesuit priests, two diocesan priests and five Franciscan nuns serve the Catholic communities. Father Chemparathy said most of the priests live in the church compound while the nuns live in their convent next door.

Jesuit Father Aleksandr Kan, 40, is the mission superior. He was born in neighboring Kazakhstan, also formerly under Soviet control. According to Father Chemparathy, Father Kan visits Catholic communities in towns including Talas and Jalalabad, respectively 200 kilometers west and 250 kilometers southwest of Bishkek. He also visits men and women in prisons, a ministry that was recently approved by the government.

His younger brother, Jesuit Father Ivan Kan, visits invalids, elderly people and mentally challenged youth regularly.

Church activities may be limited, Father Chemparathy said, but there is "finally a visible presence of the Catholic Church in this country again."

Nonetheless, it is still not easy for a Catholic priest to work in Kyrgyzstan. "You need a special permit to work, even after you get a student visa to study Russian," the Indian missioner explained. Russian is still widely spoken in the country.

Father Chemparathy described relations with the Russian Orthodox Church, the largest Christian denomination in the country, as "very good," even if relations "could be better" at higher hierarchical levels of the two Churches. In Kyrgyzstan, he said, Father Aleksandr Kan's "charismatic nature" has fostered "intimate contact with some Orthodox Church pastors."

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