SEOUL (UCAN): A seven member from the Korean Council of Religious Leaders, is scheduled to meet Pope Francis on September 19, it was announced on August 31, Korean news agency Dong-A Ilbo reported. The delegation is on a September 13 to 21 pilgrimage to develop a better understanding and dialogue between religions.
The council is a consultative body of seven religious groups in Korea—Buddhism, Won Buddhism, Catholicism, Protestantism, Cheondoism, Confucianism, and the Association of Korea National Religions.
The current chairperson is Venerable Wonhaeng of the Joyge Order, a major group representing Korean Buddhism.
Venerable Wonhaeng said in the statement that the pilgrimage, which is being hosted by Catholic members of the council, will visit Jerusalem, the Vatican and other places.
This will be the third time the Korean religious leaders will with a pope at the Vatican. Previously, the council members met with Pope Benedict XVI in 2010 and Pope Francis in 2017.
The meeting with the pope was proposed by Archbishop Hyginus Kim Hee-Joong of Gwangju during an inter-faith pilgrimage to Honam in Gwangju in April this year.
Archbishop Kim is the chairperson of the Korean Catholic bishops’ Committee on Church Unification and Inter-religious Communication.
During his 2014 visit to South Korea, Pope Francis met a delegation of 12 religious leaders.
About 50 per cent of South Koreans are non-religious, 28 per cent are Christians, 15 percent are Buddhists and the rest adhere to other faiths including Confucianism and Shamanism, according to government data as of 2020.
Catholic Church has an estimated 5.6 million members spread across three archdioceses, 14 dioceses, and a military ordinariate.
