SPOTLIGHT 25/03/31 Korean Catholics urged to imitate faith of their ancestors

[성기화 요셉]

Top Vatican official, Archbishop Emilio Nappa, concelebrates Mass marking founding of the Korean Pontifical Mission Societies

Participants take part in an Easter parade in Seoul on March 30, 2024. (Photo: AFP)

By UCA News reporter

Published: April 02, 2025 05:37 AM GMT

Updated: April 02, 2025 05:59 AM GMT

A top Vatican official visiting South Korea has urged Catholics there to draw inspiration from the steadfast faith of their ancestors to ignite their own faith.

"It is with great emotion that I visit this land of martyrs that is Korea,” said Archbishop Emilio Nappa during a Holy Mass in the national capital Seoul on March 31, Fides, the Vatican's missionary news service reported.

Nappa described Korea as a “unique country in the history of the Church, where the faith took root spontaneously before the arrival of the missionaries."

Nappa who currently serves as one of the joint secretaries general of the Governorate of the Vatican City was concelebrating a Mass commemorating the establishment of the Korean Pontifical Mission Societies (PMS).

The prelate earlier served as the president of the Pontifical Mission Societies and had been visiting South Korea since March 26.

Bishop Mathias Ri Iong-hoon, president of the Korean Bishops' Conference presided over the Holy Mass held in Seoul archdiocese’s Myeongdong Cathedral.

Archbishop Emeritus Cardinal Andrew Yeom Soo-jung of Seoul and Archbishop Giovanni Gaspari, the Apostolic Nuncio to South Korea, were among the others who concelebrated the Mass.

Numerous other bishops, priests, former national directors of the Pontifical Mission Societies, religious sisters, and lay missionaries, as well as hundreds of other Catholics also attended.

Nappa reminded them that their ancestors kept their Catholic faith while under severe persecution and while dreaming of eternal life.

“Nobles and servants sat together, calling each other brothers and sisters,” Nappa said.

He "gave thanks and praise to God," for all those who have served the Korean PMS throughout its history.

The prelate invited Catholics to "implore with the same ardent intention,” so that the steadfast faith that animated their ancestors in the faith may be awakened in them.

Between 1866 and 1886, about 9,000 Catholics, half of the total Catholic population of Korea at the time, were brutally murdered during the Byeongin Persecution.

The martyrs included nine of 12 French Catholic missionaries serving in the country at that time.

The persecution against Christians in Korea began in 1791 as the Buddhist rulers perceived Christianity as an alien faith.

An estimated 10,000 Korean Catholics were killed in various bouts of persecution that lasted about 100 years.

It is believed that Christianity came to Korea during the Japanese invasion in 1592 when some Koreans were baptized, probably by Christian Japanese soldiers. It then started as an indigenous lay movement.

Cardinal Yeom, while recalling the history of the Korean PMS established on June 29, 1965, emphasized that the Korean Church has moved from a "Church that receives,” to a "Church that gives," over the last 60 years.

"The Church on mission is a Church on the move, a Church that spreads the fragrance of Christ through the charity of daily life,” Yeom said.

Over the past century, Christianity has experienced exponential growth in Korea, from about 1 percent in the 1900s to nearly one-third of the population today.

About 56 percent of South Koreans have no religion, about 30 percent are Christians and 15.5 percent are Buddhist, according to official government records.

Protestant Christians make up the majority and the Catholic Church's 5.6 million members are spread across three archdioceses, 14 dioceses, and a military ordinariate.

The Eucharistic celebration was followed by a conference on mission and several testimonies from consecrated and lay missionaries.

Thomas Aquinas Seong-ho Song and Rosa Eun-hyung Rosa Yang, a Consolata lay missionary couple, and Sister Anna Kang, a member of the Conceptionist Teaching Missionaries and a missionary in the Philippines from 2018 to 2023, were among others who gave testimonies.