South Korea’s Catholic Church has grown to 5.5 million members from 500,000 in 1960. It is expected that by 2044, 56 percent of the South Korean population will be Roman Catholic.
The pope hopes to foster a climate of reconciliation and peace with North Korea, which has been in a state of war with South Korea since the 1953 armistice. At least that was one of the main goals of Pope Francis’ visit to South Korea in August of 2014.
During his trip, Pope Francis said a Mass for Peace and Reconciliation in the Cathedral of Myeong-dong in Seoul. Seoul’s Archbishop is also the apostolic administrator of Pyongyang, the North Korean capital. Pope Francis asked South Koreans during his homily to “bear convincing witness to Christ’s message of reconciliation in your homes, in your communities and at every level of national life.” Then he added: “I am confident that, in a spirit of friendship and cooperation with other Christians, with the followers of other religions, and with all men and women of good will concerned for the future of Korean society, you will be a leaven of the Kingdom of God in this land.”
The growth of the Catholic Church in the South Korean Peninsula may be important in nurturing a culture of reconciliation according to news sources.
The pope also urged Asian countries that do not have diplomatic ties with the Holy See to “start a dialogue among brothers,” since “Christians do not come as conquerors.” North Korea is one of a very few countries that do not have diplomatic ties with the Vatican.
Pope Francis strategy of a “diplomacy of martyrs” and an “ecumenism of martyrs” has led many to speculate that North Korea might have its first canonized saint. Bishop Francis Hong Yong-ho of Pyongyang, whose death was officially acknowledged by the Vatican in 2013, disappeared by the government in 1949. And by 1950 the brutal North Korean communist regime disappeared or killed 166 priests and religious, and many Catholics had fled to South Korea.
The Catholic Church may not come as a military conqueror, but she comes as a conqueror of ecumenical popularity. Pope Francis is working to heal the political wounds between the two nations, while trying to strengthen diplomatic ties with North Korea.
It is important to note that the stronger the Catholic presence in a nation, the more power the Catholic Church has to influence the political order and foster reconciliation, which in turn increases the geopolitical stature of the Catholic Church.
“With whom the kings of the earth have committed fornication and the inhabitants of the earth have been made drunk with the wine of her fornication.” Revelation 17:2
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