Pope Francis beatified 124 Korean martyrs in a large-scale outdoor Mass at the heart of Seoul, on Saturday, the highlight of his five-day apostolic visit to the country, where Roman Catholicism is still a minority religion.
The mass drew around 170,000 Korean Catholics to the streets of Gwanghwamun, the traditional center of Seoul and a historic place where large numbers of Korean Catholics were martyred in the 18th and 19th centuries.
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| (Yonhap) |
Before the Mass, which started at around 10 a.m., the pope greeted attendees with a 30-minute-long motorcade from City Hall to Gwanghwamun Plaza, where the altar was erected. The 1.4-kilometer street was filled with huge crowds trying to get a glimpse of the pontiff.
In his homily, Pope Francis stressed the spirit of martyrs who stood strong against hardships and their lessons for today’s Catholic Church.
“The victory of the martyrs, their witness to the power of God’s love, continues to bear fruit today in Korea, in the church which received growth from their sacrifice. Our celebration of Blessed Paul and Companions provides us with the opportunity to return to the first moments, the infancy as it were, of the Church in Korea,” said Pope.
The Mass gathered some of the largest number of Korean Catholics, including Cardinal Yeom Soo-jeong and Cardinal Parolin, the Vatican’s secretary of state, 100 members of the Episcopate, 60 bishops from various countries, 30 members from the Korean Episcopate, 1,900 priests and 170,000 lay members of the church.
As the pope declared the 124 martyrs “blessed,” a huge picture of Paul Yun Ji-chung and his companion martyrs was revealed.
The image depicts the martyrs holding various things in their hands — palms to symbolize their victory, crosses, or lilies as symbols of martyrdom and virginity. Yun became the first Korean martyr in 1791 after he refused to hold Confucian ancestral rites for his mother.
Before the Mass, the pope paid a visit to Seosomun Martyrs’ Shrine, where Yun and 26 others among the 124 blessed at the Mass were executed.
The Pope is expected to spend Saturday afternoon at Kkottongae, a welfare facility in Eumseong, to meet ascetics and people with disabilities. He will also visit a memorial for aborted babies, located in Kkottongae. The pope will conclude the third day of his visit by meeting 150 lay members of the Catholic Church.
By Lee Woo-young (wylee@heraldcorp.com)
