Seoul (UCAN): The Catholic Church in South Korea marked the official beginning of the nationwide celebrations of the 200th birth anniversary of St. Andrew Kim Taegon, one of the nation’s most revered Christian martyrs.
Andrew Cardinal Yeom Soo-jung of Seoul, together with senior Church leaders, began the year-long jubilee with an official opening Mass at the Cathedral Church of Virgin Mary of the Immaculate Conception, also known as Myeongdong Cathedral, in Seoul, on November 29, the Catholic Times reported.
Among those present were Bishop Mathias Lee Yong-hoon of Suwon, the president of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of Korea; and Archbishop Alfred Shuereb, the Vatican nuncio to South Korea.
A host of activities will be held throughout the jubilee year until 27 November 2021, the day before the first Sunday of Advent.
Bishop Lee Yong-hoon, who gave the homily, urged Catholics to follow in the footsteps of St. Andrew Kim and deepen their Catholic faith and identity.
“The jubilee theme, Are you a Catholic?, is a question that Father Kim faced during his interrogation in prison and it is a heartbreaking question to each of our believers in this era,” Bishop Lee said.
“Father Kim replied, ‘Yes. I am a Catholic,’ and he dared to shake off the fear of death and confessed his wonderful faith in God.”
During the Mass, the decree of jubilee, a special message from Pope Francis and congratulatory remarks from South Korean president, Moon Jae-in, were read.
Other archdioceses and dioceses, as well as all parishes in the country celebrated special Masses to mark the start of the jubilee. In addition, Catholics participated in exhibitions and walking pilgrimages to commemorate St. Andrew Kim and his companions who were martyred for the faith in the 19th century.
On November 28, Father James Won Jong-hyeon, president of the Korean Catholic Martyrs Museum in Seoul, launched a special year-long exhibition in the presence of Cardinal Yeom and Bishop Benedictus Son Hee-song of Seoul.
Following the Mass, Cardinal Yeom presided over the launching of a special coin with the image of St. Andrew Kim produced by the Korea Mint Corporation (Sunday Examiner, November 22).
St. Andrew Kim (1821 to 1846) was the first Korean-born Catholic priest and is now the patron saint of Korea.
He was the son of Christian converts. Following his baptism at the age of 15, he travelled to a seminary in Macau and returned to his homeland after six years through Manchuria. The same year, he crossed the Yellow Sea to Shanghai where he was ordained a priest.
Back home again, he was assigned to arrange for more missionaries to enter by a water route that would elude border patrols. He was arrested, tortured and finally beheaded at the Han River near Seoul.
The saint’s father, Ignatius Kim, was martyred during the persecution of 1839 and was beatified in 1925. Paul Chong Hasang, a lay apostle and married man, also died in 1839 at age 45.
Christianity came to Korea during the Japanese invasion in 1592 when some Koreans were baptised, probably by Christian Japanese soldiers. It then started as an indigenous lay movement.
However, the Church faced huge challenges as Korean authorities refused all contact with the outside world except for taking taxes to Beijing annually. Dozens of Christians were martyred for refusing to denounce the faith.
In 1984, during his visit to Korea, Pope St. John Paul II canonised Andrew Lim, Paul Chong along with 98 Koreans and three French missionaries who had been martyred between 1839 and 1867.
South Korea has about 5.6 million Catholics out of a population of about 51 million.
