South Korean bishops visit North to promote cooperation

Five South Korean Catholic bishops left for Pyongyang on December 1, to discuss repairs to North Korea’s Changchung Cathedral and expanding interactions between South and North Korean Catholics.

The visiting committee, which roughly translated as “Special Bishops’ Committee for Korean Reconciliation” is made up of five bishops from Gwangju, Chuncheon, Daegu, Uijeongbu, Waegwan Abbey and 17 other priests and staff members.

The committee and their staff left Gimpo Airport on Tuesday  morning to head to Beijing, en route to Pyongyang.  “In the future, I hope that more South Korean priests will be able to visit North Korea and hold mass,” said Archbishop Kim Hee-jong of Gwangju right before boarding the flight to Beijing.

The South Korean delegation also intends to reintroduce the proposal of priests being sent from the South, to provide pastoral care to the faithful of the North, or at least to celebrate mass in the designated Catholic place of worship which the regime had built in the 1980’s. During the discussions, participants will be able to develop assistance programmes offered by Catholic charitable organisations of the South for the population of the North. Such programmes will receive a boost during the Holy Year of Mercy. They will try to find out how the land lies with regard to the possibility of rebuilding a proper Catholic Church in Pyongyang, where the cathedral was destroyed during the civil war.

This official visit by the South Korean Catholic delegation is especially significant in light of the ever greater role the South Korean Church plans to play in the context of national reconciliation and a possible reunification of the two Koreas. Seventy years since the split, the Catholic Church has become the flag bearer for the potential reunification of the Korean people, comforted also by Pope Francis’ words about the vital importance of reconciliation among brothers and sisters during his apostolic visit to South Korea in August 2014. The reconciliation committee promotes awareness among faithful through the widespread work of its local branches present in each diocese.

Less than a month ago, Aid to the Church in Need Korea, a foundation under the Vatican, stated that North Korea was one of worst violators of freedom of religion around the world. The delegation’s official visit began on 1 December and ends on 4 December. (UCAN, VI)