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On his first pastoral visit to Asia, Francis placed 124 Korean martyrs on the last step toward sainthood in a beatification Mass Aug. 16 that brought elation to the 800,000 people in attendance.
The sun was searing as Bishop Francis Ahn Myong-ok of Masan, president of the commission for the beatification, asked the pope to pronounce the martyrs blessed.
After hearing a brief collective biography of 124 of the original founders of the Korean Catholic Church, Pope Francis pronounced the formula of beatification.
The 124 were killed for their beliefs, setting off a 100-year period in the 18th and 19th centuries when the Korean government went after about 10,000 faithful who pledged filial piety to God, not the king of Joseon. Among this group was Paul Yun Ji-Chung, the first Korean to be executed for his faith after he buried his mother using Catholic rites that completely went against the norms of the heavily Confucian society.
Speaking at the execution site of anonymous Korean martyrs, Pope Francis told Catholic bishops and young laypeople from across Asia to evangelize their continent through dialogue and openness, even with others suspicious or intolerant of the Church. But he also urged them to challenge aspects of their cultures incompatible with Christian values. The pope spoke Aug. 17 at Haemi Castle, about 60 miles south of Seoul, where thousands of Catholics were imprisoned and tortured during the 19th century, and at a nearby shrine commemorating those killed.
The pope addressed several hundred Asian bishops, leaders of the Church in a region that is only 3 percent Catholic.
Fittingly, Pope Francis started the day by baptizing a Korean man, Lee Hojin, in a brief ceremony at the nunciature in Seoul.
Lee, whose son was among more than 300 people killed in the April sinking of the Sewol ferry, met the pope Aug. 15 along with other family members and survivors of the disaster. Lee took the baptismal name of Francis.
Pope Francis visited a set of Korean Catholic institutions exemplifying some of his highest priorities for the Church, including engagement of laypeople and dedication to the needy.
The pope’s Aug. 16 visit to the hilltop complex of the Kkottongnae community, about 60 miles south of Seoul, included time with disabled children and adults, speeches to members of religious orders and lay activists, and a moment of silent prayer at a symbolic cemetery for aborted children.
“To assist the poor is good and necessary, but it is not enough,” the pope told about 150 leaders of various Catholic lay organizations. “Multiply your efforts in the area of human promotion, so that every man and every woman can know the joy which comes from the dignity of earning their daily bread and supporting their family.”
Such dignity, the pope warned in an off-the-cuff addition to his prepared text, was currently under threat from a prevalent “culture of money.”
Pope Francis told young Asian Catholic leaders to witness to Christ in everything they do. During his homily on the muddy grounds of Haemi Fortress, Pope Francis urged more than 40,000 people— including young Catholic leaders from 22 Asian countries—to “reflect God’s love.”
Pope Francis emphasized the theme of this year’s gathering, “Asian Youth Wake Up, the Glory of the Martyrs Shines on You.’
“It’s no good when I see young people who sleep,” said the pontiff. “No. Wake up! Go! Go!”
Pope Francis told Korean Catholics that the reunification of their divided peninsula as well as the harmony of South Korean society depend on the practice of Gospel virtues, especially charity and forgiveness.
In a homily Aug. 18, during a Mass for peace and reconciliation at Seoul’s Myongdong Cathedral, Pope Francis asked those in attendance “to bear convincing witness to Christ’s message of forgiveness in your homes, in your communities and at every level of national life,” he said.
Guests included South Korean President Park Geun-hye, women who were sold into sexual slavery during World War II, North Korean defectors, those whose families were kidnapped and taken to North Korea and 12 clerics from various faiths.
Celebrating Mass before some 50,000 people Aug. 15 at the World Cup Stadium in Daejeon, the pope prayed that Christian values overcome demoralization in economically successful societies.
Just before he dressed for the Mass, Pope Francis met outside the sacristy with 10 people involved in the April Sewol ferry disaster. Some were survivors of the incident that left 300 people, mostly teens, dead; some were relatives, and a few priests were among the group. The pope embraced and blessed them, placing his hand on their heads. Some wiped away tears.
Addressing young people from Korea and other Asian countries on their concerns about the future, Pope Francis, attending an Aug. 15 Asian Youth Day gathering in Solmoe, about 60 miles south of Seoul, said the best hope for reunification of the divided Korean peninsula lay in brotherly love and a spirit of forgiveness. He then led the audience of some 6,000 people in silent prayer for Korean reunification.
The youths said they felt inspired after Pope Francis went off script to answer questions from pre-selected participants, watched a re-enactment of a modern-day Prodigal Son and also sat down to lunch with a small group at the Asian Youth Day conference in the Daejeon Diocese.
The tent at the Solmoe Holy Ground crackled with music, cheering and the excitement of teens and young adults.
Alexander John of Pakistan told reporters his heart started beating “double time” when he learned he was selected for the sit-down lunch with the pope. The youth minister from the Karachi Archdiocese called the meeting a “dream come true.”
“He really made my day, he really made my life,” said John, 27.
Pope Francis urged South Korean political and civic leaders to seek peace on their divided peninsula and strengthen their nation’s commitment to democracy and social justice. “Peace is not simply the absence of war, but the work of justice,” the pope said Aug. 14 in a speech at Seoul’s Blue House, the official residence of President Park Geun-hye.
Addressing some 200 government officials, Pope Francis noted that the country, divided between North and South since the end of the Korean War in 1953, “has long suffered because of a lack of peace,” and he praised “efforts being made in favor of reconciliation and stability.”
Introducing the pope before his speech, President Park said the war “still casts a shadow” over Korea, “dividing not only the country but so many families.”
Tensions with communist North Korea have risen markedly in recent years, especially over Pyongyang’s development of nuclear arms. Less than an hour before the pope’s plane landed in Seoul, North Korea fired three short-range missiles into the Sea of Japan in the latest of a large number of missile tests it began launching in March.
Pope Francis warned South Korea’s Catholic bishops not to let their country’s “prosperous, yet increasingly secularized and materialistic society” distract the Church from its essential duty to evangelize. Since the end of the Korean War in 1953, the southern half of the peninsula has risen from poverty to become the world’s 13th-largest economy—good fortune that Pope Francis said posed cultural and spiritual perils.
The pope spoke Aug. 14 at the headquarters of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of Korea. Earlier in the day, he met privately with South Korean President Park.
The pope told the bishops the life and mission of the Korean Church must be measured in the “clear light of the Gospel and its call to conversion to the person of Jesus Christ.”
—CNS
