CHIMKENT, Kazakhstan (UCAN) -- The Servants of the Lord and the Virgin of Matara (SSVM) have become the second congregation of women Religious serving in the Diocese of Most Holy Trinity in Almaty.

On Sept. 29, Bishop Henry Howaniec of Almaty dedicated their convent in the St. Therese of Lisieux Parish compound in Chimkent, 1,000 kilometers south of Astana. During the ceremony, the American-born Franciscan prelate referred to the three SSVM nuns when he said, "Those whom Christ's love gathers to follow him in love, celibacy and obedience will be living in this convent."

The SSVM nuns are the female branch of the Argentina-based Institute of the Incarnate Word, formed in 1984. The nuns' congregation was set up in 1988.

The two Religious institutes share the same charism, have twin constitutions and maintain active and contemplative branches. The Incarnate Word family also has a lay Third Order that gained official Holy See recognition in 2004.

The main work of Sisters Maria Cor Dulche, Maria Benigna and Maria Virhen del Milagro will be teaching catechism to children, youth and adults.

"It is good for us to change the place of service because it tests our trust in God," Sister Cor Dulche, who heads the new convent in Chimkent, told UCA News. Before her recent arrival in this southern Kazakhstan city, the Peruvian nun served for seven years in Ukraine.

Sister Benigna, a Brazilian, worked for four years in Russia before she was assigned here. "The parish is very young and there are very few parishioners, but we have a group of children and adults we are preparing for confirmation and baptism," Sister Benigna said of her new mission.

The third nun, Sister Virhen del Milagro, was born in Argentina. She came to Chimkent after three months in Tajikistan, an neighboring Central Asian nation where Incarnate Word priests run all three parishes and are assisted by SSVM nuns in the capital, Dushanbe.

Father Jose Lius Mumbiela is one of two Spanish priests who set up St. Therese of Lisieux Parish in Chimkent in 1998. He is now rector of the seminary in Karaganda, Kazakhstan, the only Catholic seminary in Central Asia. The other Spanish priest has returned to Spain.

In 2006, two Incarnate Word priests took over the parish "on loan" from the Tajikistan mission, to which they had been officially assigned.

When Pope John Paul II created the sui iuris (self-governing) mission of Tajikistan in 1997, he entrusted its pastoral care to the Institute of the Incarnate Word. According to the institute's website, it currently has 300 priests and 300 seminarians worldwide.

The two Argentinean priests now in Chimkent minister to 30 Catholics in the two-story church, whose compound includes a guesthouse, garage and fruit garden, as well as the new convent.

Jansulu Sultanova, 52, one of the parishioners who welcomed the nuns, told UCA News: "In Soviet times, I knew little about Catholicism, but admired the life that Mother Teresa of Kolkata led." She said she is "glad we now have nuns" because "they give up everything to devote their lives to the people."

The other female Religious congregation in Almaty diocese is School Sisters of St. Francis, founded in 1874 in Wisconsin, United States. Franciscan priests and brothers as well as diocesan priests also serve in the diocese.

There are 250,000 Roman Catholics and 3,000 Greek Catholics in Kazakhstan, where the Catholic Church has one archdiocese, two dioceses and an apostolic administration. Muslims account for about 60 percent of the country's 15 million people. Another 30 percent belong to the Russian Orthodox Church.

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