Pope Francis yesterday called for peace and reconciliation on the divided Korean Peninsula and sent a further message of goodwill to China, wrapping-up a five day trip to South Korea and the first papal visit to Asia in 15 years.
Before a Mass yesterday at Seoul’s Myeongdong Cathedral, Francis prayed with a small number of “comfort women” who were forced to work as sex slaves for Japanese soldiers occupying the country before and during World War II.
“Today’s Mass is first and foremost a prayer for reconciliation in this Korean family,” Francis said, following up on an impromptu prayer on Friday last week when he urged Koreans to work to unite as one family, “with no victors or vanquished.”
A group of defectors from North Korea and relatives of South Koreans abducted by the North were invited to the Mass, which was attended by South Korean President Park Geun-hye.
MILITARY DRILLS
North Korea turned down an invitation from the South Korean Catholic Church for members of its state-run Korean Catholic Association to attend yesterday’s Mass, citing the start of joint US-South Korean military drills, also due to begin yesterday.
“Let us pray... for the emergence of new opportunities for dialogue, encounter and the resolution of differences, for continued generosity in providing humanitarian assistance to those in need, and for an ever greater recognition that all Koreans are brothers and sisters, members of one family, one people,” Francis said.
Near the conclusion of the Mass, a choir sang: “Our wish is unification.”
As the pope’s plane entered Chinese airspace on its return flight to Rome, Francis sent a telegram to Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平), following up an unprecedented message sent during his flight to South Korea on Thursday last week.
“Returning to Rome after my visit to Korea, I wish to renew to your excellency and your fellow citizens the assurance of my best wishes, as I invoke divine blessings upon your land,” the pope’s telegram said.
While it is tradition for the pope to send a message to countries he is flying over, the Vatican and Beijing have long had fraught relations, and Francis’ predecessor, John Paul II, had to avoid Chinese airspace during an Asia trip.
NOT CONQUERORS
On Sunday, Francis said Asian governments should not fear Christians, as they did not want to “come as conquerors,” but be integral parts of local cultures. The remarks were intended for communist-ruled countries such as China, North Korea and Vietnam.
One of the “comfort women” who sat in the front row at the Mass, Kim Bok-dong, gave Francis a small butterfly-shaped pin that he wore on his vestment.
The pin is a symbol of their campaign, meant to convey that they want to be liberated and fly in a peaceful and free world, a non-profit group that supports the women said.
About 150,000 to 200,000 Korean women served as Japanese sex slaves, and most lived out their lives in silence; 56 are still alive, another nonprofit group said.
“That we could meet him was a big honor and hope,” one of the women, Lee Yong-soo, an 87-year-old Catholic, said after the Mass, showing off the white rosary Francis gave her. “Japan should take responsibility for what they did in the war. We were forced.”
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