Information will also be exchanged about Central Asia, as Fr. Johannes Boersch, vicar general for that region, will serve as the English translator for the first leg of the Bishop's journey. Boersch, along with approximately 25 other priests, serves under Bp. Jan Lenga in the Apostolic Administration for the countries of Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Turkmeniya, Tajikistan and Kirghizia. Werth says there are two key differences between the church in Siberia and in Central Asia.
Christians are a minority in the predominantly Muslim countries of Central Asia.
Another difference is that in places like Karaganda, Kazakhstan, priests have been present for the past 35 years. Karaganda, seat of Bp. Lenga and birthplace of Bp. Werth, maintains a strong German Catholic tradition. A number of predominantly Polish or Ukrainian Catholic villages dot the map of northern Kazakhstan, but in Siberia Catholics live in mostly mixed ethnic and mixed religious situations.