North Korean exiles celebrate Mass for reconciliation in Uijeongbu

For the first time, three South Korean dioceses organised together this moment of encounter and prayer, with thoughts for the deceased and divided families. For Fr Jung, “While the Catholic Church’s support and companionship for North Korean defectors were more focused on the initial settlement in the past, now it seems that pastoral and spiritual companionship is also requested.”

Seoul (AsiaNews) – For the first time, dioceses in South Korea have promoted the celebration of a Mass with North Korean exiles living in Seoul, Suwon, and Uijeongbu. The service was held last Saturday, 7 September, in Uijeongbu at the Church of Repentance and Atonement, a symbolic place for this celebration.

The Reconciliation Committee of the Archdiocese of Seoul was behind this new project, planned for this year. Later, at the request of North Koreans living in Gyeonggi province, the three dioceses decided to celebrate the liturgy together. Committee vice chairman Fr Ignatius Sooyong Jung led the service.

“We at the Korea Reconciliation Committee of Seoul often use the phrase, ‘As long as you remember them, they shall live on. And all your wishes will come true, as long as you pray,’” said Fr Jung in his homily.

“Through today’s Mass,” he added, “let us remember and pray together for our beloved family members who have passed away, our relatives and neighbours who live far away, and our precious hometown that we cannot visit, and ask God for grace.”

For Clara Moon, the Mass was a special occasion. She came to visit her mother's ashes at the Bongan-dang (Gate of Peace), once located in the church. Another woman, Anna Han, from Seoul, said: “I met my hometown friends living in Gyeonggi Province and had a long-awaited reunion. I cherished the memories I had with my family back in the North and prayed for them during the Mass, hoping to revisit my hometown someday.”

“Every New Year’s and Thanksgiving, I take my children to the places where I can see North Korea up close and tell them stories about my relatives back in the North,” said Francisca Romana Mikyung Kim, leader of the North Korean group for reconciliation between the Koreas of the Archdiocese of Seoul. “The pain of division is felt greatly by North Korean defectors who have been separated from their families.”

According to Fr Jung, around 34,000 North Koreans fled to the South, more than 90 per cent more than five years ago.

“While the Catholic Church’s support and companionship for North Korean defectors were more focused on the initial settlement in the past, now it seems that pastoral and spiritual companionship is also requested. I hope that this joint memorial Mass was a chance for believers and non-believers to come together and pray,” Fr Jung said.

The Archdiocese of Seoul established the Committee for Reconciliation between the Koreas on 1 March 1995, on the fiftieth anniversary of the liberation from Japan, on the instructions of the late Card Stephen Sou-hwan Kim, then archbishop of Seoul and apostolic administrator of Pyongyang.

Currently led by Archbishop Peter Soon-Taick Cung, the Committee is involved in various pastoral activities dedicated to peace and reconciliation on the Korean peninsula, centred on the founding values of prayer, education and sharing.

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