Meet Father Tomasz, Turkmenistan (Interview with Missionary)

I am from The Congregation Missionary Oblates of Mary Immaculate. I am from Poland and I have been a priest since 1997. I arrived in Turkmenistan on 10th March 2000. From the moment I have entered the Oblates Congregation I always wanted to work on missions. The truth is that I have never dreamt about Turkmenistan because I didn’t know much about that country. Madagascar was my biggest dream, but after 2 years of work in Poland my Province offered to me Turkmenistan as a place for my mission and I decided to go there immediately.

Turkmenistan is very young country existing from 1991, emerged into independence from the collapse of the Soviet Union. Turkmenistan never existed on the maps before; this is totally new country not a rebirth of the old one. The country with its capital in Ashgabat is located in Central Asia bordering with Iran, Afghanistan, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan and the Caspian Sea. The area of Turkmenistan is 488,100 km2 but much of the country (80 %) is covered by desert known as Kara Kum (“Black Sands”). Population of the country is about 4 million, there are two official languages Turkmen and Russian.

The Catholic mission has been opened in autumn 1997. Two missionaries Oblates arrived from Poland. Father Andrzej Madej OMI was appointed as the Superior of the Mission Sui Iuris by the Pope. (He is an ordinary for Turkmenistan), and father Radoslaw Zmidrowicz OMI. They were first catholic priests to arrive here after 80 years absence of a priest. Before that there was a priest in this area but only for one year, never before and never after that.

This is why we start from scratch. When after 2 years I arrived to Turkmenistan as a 3rd Oblate, there was already a group of about 20 catechumens preparing for baptism. At present whole community is about 80 people, and for past 6 years only 2 priests are working here. Until this day Catholic Church hasn’t been accepted by the country. This is why our official statute is diplomatic mission.

As I already mention our work has dual character and we share our duties into work in diplomatic corps and pastoral work. Besides everyday Mass on which there are between ten and twenty people present, we have regular meetings with people who are preparing for the sacrament of christening and regular religious educations for adults who are already christened. The whole preparation for the christening takes about 3 years. Besides that we take part in diplomatic life, we are obligate to attend all kinds of official meetings. We also try to help people in everyday life and we lead small Caritas.

The struggles of the young people in Turkmenistan are mainly the same as the struggles of the Catholic youths. First of all it is lack of prospects for the future, there is no good education, no cultural entertainment. There are a lot of young intelligent people who have no chance to study, system is constructed in such a way that unable personal development of average person.

When we began our mission in Turkmenistan one of our Fathers gave us such an advice: Low profile. In present conditions high development of our mission is impossible. We have no registration and because of that we have some restrictions, this is why to keep low profile is the best solution. What keeps me going is growing community and living faith among neophytes.

Uplifting moments in my mission were all kinds of visits of different guests and evangelizing groups. We had such groups in Ashgabat few times already. Because we are a church in separation (the closest church is about 1500 km in Uzbekistan) visits of other priests, evangelizing groups and laypeople are very helpful and give us proof of living faith.

My message to youths engaged in mission: The most important is to not lose heart when the first time things go wrong. We can not expect too much and we have to do our job and not to be discouraged when the fruits of our labor don’t come immediately. One day they are going to be visible anyway………….

Fr Tomasz in blue jacket